78  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  Pope,  Sixtus  IV.  After  each  war  in  which 
he  was  victorious  he  built  a  beautiful  church. 
These  churches  still  exist  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  have  been  used  as  places  of  worship 
up  to  the  present  time.  Thus  he  built  47 
churches.  In  the  inspiration  of  his  mother  he 
found  his  highest  moral  stimulus.  This  is  what 
a  popular  legend  says  about  this  heroine : 

"In  this  old  fortress  built  on  the  side  of  a 
mountain,  the  Mother  of  the  Prince  keeps  watch 
as  a  sentinel  of  honor.  Voichitza,  the  young  wife 
of  the  Prince,  is  also  there,  sweet  and  suave,  as 
a  white  carnation,  sighing  for  her  glorious  and 
much-loved  lord,  who  returns  not  from  the  com- 
bat. The  Princess,  her  mother-in-law,  consoles 
and  cheers  her.  The  clock  has  just  struck  mid- 
night, when  Voichitza  hears  the  fanfare  of  the 
trumpet  and  the  knocking  at  the  gate.  She  knows 
it  is  her  husband,  and  her  heart  goes  out  to  him. 
Both  the  princesses  rise  quickly,  and  soon  the 
voice  of  him  whom  they  love  cries  from  the  dark- 
ness: 'It  is  I,  thy  son,  dear  mother.  I  thy  son! 
I  am  wounded  in  battle,  the  struggle  has  been  too 
strong  for  us,  and  my  little  army  is  devastated. 
Open  the  gates,  for  the  Turks  are  surrounding 
us,  the  wind  is  piercing,  and  my  wounds  are  pain- 
ful.' Voitchitza  rushes  to  the  window,  but  her 
mother-in-law  holds  her  back,  and  bidding  her 


Woman 's  Work  in  Rumania  79 

remain  where  she  is,  descends  the  stairs,  orders 
the  castle  gates  to  be  opened,  and  appears  before 
her  son,  tall,  majestic,  severe — the  absolute  per- 
sonification of  dignity  and  grandeur.  'What  do 
you  say,  stranger?  My  Stephen  is  far  away! 
His  arm  is  sowing  death  and  annihilation.  I  am 
his  mother  and  he  is  my  son!  If  you  are  really 
Stephen,  I  am  not  your  mother.  If  heaven  does 
not  wish  to  make  my  last  days  sorrowful,  and  if 
you  are  really  Stephen,  you  will  not  enter  here, 
vanquished,  against  my  will.  Fly  to  the  battle- 
field! Die  for  your  country!  Your  tomb  shall 
be  strewn  with  flowers!'  And  closing  the  door, 
she  remounts  the  stairs ;  and  calm  and  serene,  she 
consoles  and  wipes  away  the  tears  of  the  young 
Princess  Voichitza." 

The  dignified  descendants  of  those  women  of 
the  past  are  also  in  the  present  times  keeping  high 
their  inheritance  and  their  fruitful  mission. 
Whilst  the  peasant  woman,  as  I  have  said,  by 
her  daily  toil  provides  the  army  and  the  people 
with  the  necessary  food,  clothing  and  things  of 
first  necessity,  her  sisters  of  the  higher  classes  are 
lending  all  their  efforts  to  the  army  and  the  coun- 
try. Organized  in  charity  societies  or  individu- 
ally, they  tend  the  wounded  in  hospitals,  and  in 
the  hospital-trains  leading  from  the  firing  line; 
they  have  organized  canteens  in  railway  stations, 


RUMANIA  AND  THE  WAR 


BY 


NICHOLAS  LUPU,  M.D. 

1     ^ 

Member  of  the  Rumanian  Parliament 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS    BY 
JEAN    RADOU 


BOSTON 

RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE    GORHAM    PRESS 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY  RICHARD  G.  BADGER 


All  Rights  Reserved 


L-3 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


FOREWORD 

The  author  of  the  following  book  is  a  Ruma- 
nian physician  who  was  also,  during  and  prior  to 
the  war,  a  member  of  the  Rumanian  Parliament. 
When  his  country,  overrun  and  devastated  by  her 
enemies,  and  completely  cut  off  from  her  friends, 
was  forced  to  sign  an  unwilling  and  disastrous 
peace  with  the  Central  Powers,  he  left  his  home 
at  the  last  moment  when  it  was  still  possible  to 
reach  the  outside  world,  because  he  believed  that 
he  could  serve  his  country  only  by  pleading  her 
cause  abroad.  For  Rumania,  which  possibly  suf- 
fered more  than  any  other  country  in  the  war, 
was  certainly  the  most  completely  isolated  of  all 
those  that  had  fought  the  common  enemy.  Within 
a  few  weeks  after  our  author's  departure  it  was 
impossible  to  enter  or  to  leave  the  country,  and 
even  communication  by  post  or  telegraph  was 
out  of  the  question.  A  small  band  of  leaders  like 
Dr.  Lupu  had  escaped  to  represent  the  country 
to  the  world,  and  they  alone  could  tell  iier 
story. 

Some  part  of  that  story  is  printed  in  this  book. 
3 


4  Foreword 

Dr.  Lupu  travelled  in  England,  France,  Italy,  and 
America,  speaking  and  writing  of  Rumania.  The 
articles  here  collected  represent  some  of  the  dis- 
courses and  essays  thus  delivered  or  published  in 
the  allied  countries.  Their  author  was  in  America 
when  the  armistice  was  signed,  promising  a 
brighter  future  for  his  land  as  for  all  others.  The 
rest  of  his  story  can  better  be  told  in  the  words 
of  a  letter  of  the  author,  which,  though  not  written 
for  publication,  forms  an  appropriate  introduction 
for  his  book  to  the  American  public. 

"When  I  sailed  for  America  three  months  ago, 
I  expected  to  stay  here  longer.  The  deeds  of  the 
valiant  American  boys  were  so  heroic  that  they 
brought  a  rapid  close  of  the  war  in  victory. 
Through  their  achievement  the  path  is  once  more 
open  to  Rumania,  and  I  am  in  a  hurry  to  go  home 
in  order  that  I  may  be  of  service  in  this  dark 
hour  of  my  country's  history.  But  I  shall  come 
back  to  America.  One  who  has  been  here  once, 
and  has  been  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  America,  has 
to  come  back.  It  is  as  it  used  to  be  in  Rome.  Pope 
Adrian  IV,  when  receiving  visitors  at  the  Vatican, 
used  to  ask  them  how  long  they  were  staying  in 
the  Eternal  City.  If  the  reply  was  one  week, 
he  would  say  'adieu'  at  their  departure,  but  if  the 
answer  was  three  months  or  more  he  always  said 
'au  revoir.'  So  it  is  with  me. 


Foreword  5 

"During  my  three  months  here,  I  have  seen 
many  things.  When  the  time  for  writing  comes 
again  I  shall  tell  my  countrymen  about  them.  But 
one  thing  I  must  say  now. 

"I  have  wondered  how  the  Americans  were  able 
to  achieve  such  memorable  deeds  in  peace  and  in 
war  as  they  have  accomplished.  And  if  I  have 
not  probed  deep  into  the  ultimate  causes  of  their 
success,  I  believe  that  nevertheless  I  have  sat- 
isfied myself  as  to  the  proximate  causes  of  their 
remarkable  progress. 

"For  certain  purposes  the  many  types  of  in- 
dividuals and  peoples  in  the  world  may  be  re- 
duced to  two.  There  is  the  purely  idealistic  type, 
who  dreams  of  regenerating  the  world  into  per- 
fection, but  whose  dreams  have  too  slight  founda- 
tion in  experience  and  practice.  The  Russians  of 
our  day  are  an  example.  Then  there  is  the  prac- 
tical type,  strong  of  will,  powerful  in  organization, 
but  lacking  in  high  spiritual  ideal.  The  Germans 
are  the  corresponding  example.  Now  the  Ameri- 
cans exhibit  both  these  qualities  highly  developed 
and  remarkably  harmonized,  and  this  striking 
combination  of  traits  is,  I  am  sure,  a  considerable 
part  of  the  explanation  of  their  successes.  And 
with  these  traits  they  are  distinguished  also  for 
what  I  can  only  call  a  certain  freshness  of  soul,  a 


6  Foreword 

naivete,    characteristic     of     strong     and    young 
peoples,  for  whom  nothing  is  impossible." 

An  author  who  speaks  in  this  way  about  our 
country  after  a  brief  acquaintance  with  it  de- 
serves an  interested  reader  when  he  writes  about 
his  own  land. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

RUMANIA  AND  THE  WAR 13 

SOME  FACTS  OF  HISTORY  AND  GEOGRAPHY  .     .  43 

WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  RUMANIA 64 

PEASANT  CO-OPERATION  IN  RUMANIA       ...  83 

FOR  THE  REUNION  OF  ALL  RUMANIANS  ...  93 

UKRAINIA  AND  BESSARABIA 103 

MEMORANDUM  OF  THE  RUMANIAN  WAR  AIMS.     .  113 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

With  the  Rumanian  Army — A  Cavalry  Patrol  on 
the  Ice  Fields Frontispiece 

With    the     Rumanian    Army — Maxim     Section 
Driving    Down    a    Steep    Embankment     .      .       26 

With    the    Rumanian    Army    in    the    Field.     A 

Priest    Blessing    Regimental    Colors     ...  40 

A  Rumanian  Peasant  Girl  in  National  Costume  66 

Two  Rumanian  Peasant  Beauties 72 

Ecaterina  Theodoroiu 80 

The   Crown   Prince   of  Rumania   at   a   Military 
School 86 

The  White  Guard  102 


RUMANIA  AND  THE  WAR 


RUMANIA  AND  THE  WAR 

WO  years  ago,  when  I  was  in  London,  I  saw 
in  a  newspaper  a  sketch  representing  a  news- 
paper boy  in  1935  crying  "Rumania  coming  in." 
That  sketch  depicted  sarcastically  the  anxiety  and 
the  puzzled  state  of  mind  of  the  public  as  to  the 
attitude  of  Rumania.  From  1914  until  1916  Ru- 
mania was  the  political  sphinx  of  the  time.  Is 
Rumania  to  come  into  the  war?  On  whose  side, 
and  when  ?  Why  has  she  not  yet  come  in  ?  These 
questions  remained  unanswered.  No  one  was  able 
to  say  anything  definite.  Later  on,  long  before 
1935,  Rumania  did  enter  the  war  on  the  side  of 
the  Allies.  After  some  ephemeral  successes  at 
the  beginning,  when  her  sons  after  three  centuries 
of  waiting  since  the  time  of  Michael  the  Brave 
entered  again  into  Transylvania,  the  calvary  of 
her  misfortunes  began:  the  loss  of  Dobrudja,  the 
retreat  in  Transylvania,  the  loss  of  Wallachia, 
hunger,  and  exanthematic  typhoid.  Instead  of 
the  enthusiasm  which  greeted  the  entry  of  Ruma- 
nia into  the  war,  a  sort  of  disillusionment  and  dis- 
appointment was  felt  in  the  West,  where  "failure" 


14  Rumania  and  the  War 

was  the  only  word  used  of  Rumania.  The  long- 
awaited  ally  on  whom  so  many  hopes  had  been 
built  had  become  a  burden  difficult  to  support  and 
a  troublesome  companion  in  the  fight.  Only  quite 
lately,  during  the  summer  of  1917,  after  the 
Homeric  battles  of  Mareshti  and  Marasheshti, 
when  a  good  many  allied  officers  and  soldiers  had 
the  opportunity  to  be  eye-witnesses  of  the  bravery 
of  the  Rumanian  soldiers,  public  opinion  in  the 
West  immediately  altered  its  ideas  and  sentiments 
toward  Rumania.  And  now  after  the  Russian  dis- 
aster, which  has  had  a  repercussion  on  all  of  us, 
but  a  tragical  one  on  Rumania,  one  may  say  that 
everybody  shows  sympathy  and  compassion  for 
the  Rumanian  people.  But  neither  during  the 
period  of  doubt  and  suspicion,  nor  during  the  time 
of  enthusiasm  and  subsequent  disappointment- 
one  could  almost  say  of  disdain — perhaps  not  even 
during  the  present  period  of  compassion,  is  the 
real  situation  of  Rumania  known.  The  public  at 
large  do  not  know  it  and,  what  is  more  important, 
even  those  do  not  kflow  who  ought  to  know.  For 
if  the  real  state  of  things  in  Rumania  had  been 
known,  many  mistakes  could  have  been  avoided, 
and  the  entry  of  Rumania  into  the  fray  could  have 
been  decisive  for  the  Allies  instead  of  being  fatal 
for  her.  The  aim  of  this  essay  is  to  throw  a 
stronger  light  on  the  conditions  of  the  Rumanian 
tragedy. 


Rumania  and  the  War  15 

First  of  all,  was  it  absolutely  necessary  for  Ru- 
mania— speaking  from  the  point  of  view  of  strictly 
Rumanian  interests — to  take  part  in  the  world 
war?  Yes.  While  other  peoples  of  Europe  had 
long  ago  fulfilled  the  national  ideal  of  having  in 
one  state  all  their  co-nationals,  the  Rumanians, 
after  a  long  series  of  historical  vicissitudes,  were 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  in  the 
following  geographical  and  ethnographical  situ- 
ation: There  were  7,000,000  Rumanians  living 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Rumania;  4,500,000  in  Tran- 
sylvania, Banat,  Bukovina,  and  parts  of  Mara- 
muresh  and  Crishana  in  Austria-Hungary;  2,000,- 
ooo  in  Bessarabia;  1,000,000  over  the  Dniester  in 
the  governments  of  Kherson  and  Podolia  in  Rus- 
sia; 500,000  in  Macedonia;  and  200,000  in 
Serbia  on  the  Timok  Valley.  More  than  half  of 
the  Rumanians  are  living  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  the  Kingdom,  but  in  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood and  in  unbroken  continuity,  except  those  in 
Macedonia. 

The  Rumanian  in  Transylvania  and  Hungary 
is  beyond  the  protection  of  the  law.  The  Hun- 
garians, who  vaunt  themselves  on  having  a  con- 
stitution as  old  as  the  British,  and  on  being  the 
most  liberal  people  in  Europe,  are  suffering  from 
a  great  delusion.  They  dream  of  making  a  great 
nation  of  20,000,000  Hungarians,  although  they 
number  only  8,000,000.  For  this  reason,  they  try 


1 6  Rumania  and  the  War 

to  magyarize  the  14,000,000  Rumanians  and  Serb- 
ians by  imposing  upon  them  the  most  Draconian 
regime ;  and  in  the  matter  of  inventing  Draconian 
devices  they  are  unsurpassed  by  anybody.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Rumanians  are  deprived  of  par- 
liamentary representation.  Instead  of  the  eighty 
deputies  to  which  the  proportion  established  in 
Hungary  for  election  purposes  would  entitle  them 
they  have  only  four.  The  vote  is  not  secret,  and 
at  each  election  there  are  dead  and  wounded 
among  those  who  vote  for  the  Rumanian  candi- 
date. Liberty  of  the  press  is  non-existent;  for 
as  soon  as  one  writes  of  Rumania,  fines  and  im- 
prisonment are  his  portion.  During  the  last 
twenty  years  about  one  hundred  years  of  prison 
and  many  hundred  thousand  crowns  in  fines  have 
been  imposed  upon  Rumanian  journalists  in  Hun- 
gary. Justice  is  administered  in  the  Magyar  lan- 
guage, which  the  great  majority  of  the  Rumanians 
do  not  understand,  because  it  is  a  language  apart, 
which  has  no  kindred  with  any  of  the  European 
languages.  The  instruction  is  also  given  in  that 
language.  The  schools  which  the  Rumanians  have 
established  at  great  sacrifice  out  of  their  own  pri- 
vate funds  have  been  closed  by  the  liberal  Hun- 
garian Count  Apponyi.  Three  hundred  peasants 
were  done  to  death  in  the  interval  from  1902  to 
1912  for  wearing  the  Rumanian  national  tricolor. 


Rumania  and  the  War  17 

Not  one  Rumanian  paper  or  book  from  Rumania 
is  allowed  to  enter  Hungary,  although  there  is  no 
prohibition  in  Rumania  for  the  importation  of 
any  publication  from  either  Hungary  or  elsewhere. 
All  the  public  offices,  large  or  small,  are  occupied 
by  Hungarians;  all  economic  advantages,  like 
banking,  credit,  help  in  misfortune,  colonization, 
etc.,  are  only  for  Hungarian  use.  The  name  they 
give  to  the  Rumanian,  "Olah,"  is  a  name  of  insult. 

This  state  of  slavery,  of  vassalage  to  the  Hun- 
garians, under  different  forms  has  lasted  for  cen- 
turies. Several  times  the  Rumanians  have  re- 
volted. Since  the  revolutionary  movements  of 
1784  and  1848  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Ruma- 
nians have  emigrated  partly  to  Rumania  to  tell 
their  misfortunes  to  their  brethren,  and  partly  to 
America.  The  latter  are  forming  at  present  a 
few  divisions  which  will  be  sent  to  France,  in  the 
Rumanian  uniform,  to  fight  side  by  side  with  the 
British  and  French  soldiers.  Thus  the  Rumanians 
will  still  be  represented  in  the  mighty  army  of  the 
Allies,  although  a  cruel  fate  prevents  the  main 
body  of  the  Rumanian  army  from  continuing  the 
holy  struggle. 

But  the  emigrants  left  behind  millions  of  their 
brethren  in  continual  suffering.  And  these  millions 
of  Rumanians  of  Transylvania  are  the  best  ele- 
ment of  the  race.  From  them  came  the  first  ele- 


1 8  Rumania  and  the  War 

ments  of  culture ;  they  promoted  the  awakening  of 
national  sentiment  which  was  slumbering  under 
the  Turkish  domination;  they  have  produced  the 
best  of  our  writers  and  poets,  two  of  whom,  Goga 
and  Coshbuc,  belong  to  our  own  generation.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  world  war  they  looked  east- 
ward over  the  Carpathians  to  Rumania  with  dawn- 
ing hope,  and  but  one  thought,  their  liberation. 
And  with  equal  longing  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  Rumania  shared  their  hope  and  ardently 
desired  its  rapid  fulfilment. 

When,  in  recompense  for  the  help  given  to  them 
by  the  Rumanians  in  their  war  against  the  Turks 
in  1877,  and  contrary  to  the  formal  engagements 
taken  to  respect  the  integrity  of  the  territory  of 
Rumania,  the  ungrateful  Russians  for  the  second 
time  took  Bessarabia  away  from  her,  the  official 
policy  of  Rumania,  under  the  leadership  of  the 
late  King  Carol,  was,  of  dire  necessity,  adherence 
to  the  Triple  Alliance.  ,But  the  people,  the  great 
mass  of  the  nation  on  both  sides  of  the  Car- 
pathians, never  understood  that  they  must  sacrifice 
to  this  Alliance  the  more  than  just  claims  of  the 
Rumanian  race. 

But  besides  the  cry  of  our  brothers  over  the 
mountains,  we  could  also  hear  the  plaint  of  our 
brothers  over  the  Pruth  in  Bessarabia.  All  the 
gallant  history  of  four  centuries  of  the  struggle 
for  freedom  in  Moldavia  is  full  of  names  of  Bes- 


Rumania  and  the  War  19 

sarabian  heroes  and  Bessarabian  places.  Broken 
by  treason  from  the  body  of  Moldavia  in  1812, 
and  incorporated  with  Russia  by  the  Tsar  Alexan- 
der I,  Bessarabia  was  enduring  a  cruel  fate.  Here 
every  national  movement  was  punished  not  by 
fines,  but  by  exile  to  Siberia  and  death.  No  Ru- 
manian schools,  either  private  or  belonging  to  the 
Government,  existed.  In  the  Church,  only  Rus- 
sian was  permitted,  and  so  also  in  the  administra- 
tion and  the  courts  of  justice.  As  for  national  rep- 
resentatives, even  the  Russians  had  none.  And 
above  all  this  there  was  the  continuous  enmity 
which  Russia  of  the  Tsars  has  shown  to  the  Ru- 
manian countries,  always  regarded  as  a  prey.  In 
the  nineteenth  century  the  Rumanian  countries 
were  six  times  overrun  and  plundered  by  the  Mos- 
covite  armies;  and  the  last  act  of  the  rape  of  Bes- 
sarabia was  in  1914,  too  fresh  in  everybody's 
mind.  If  one  adds  to  this  the  well-known  desire 
of  Russia  for  the  Dardanelles  and  Constanti- 
nople, that  is  to  say,  the  outlet  by  which  the  whole 
of  the  exportation  of  Rumania  is  directed,  and 
that  Russia  and  Rumania,  both  producing  the 
same  articles,  oil  and  cereals,  were  continually 
meeting  as  competitors  in  the  Western  markets, 
one  can  easily  see  that  the  sincere  supporters  of 
an  intervention  against  Russia,  were  not  lacking 
in  plausible  arguments. 

I  say  with  intention  sincere  supporters,  because 


2O  Rumania  and  the  War 

much  was  written  and  said  about  corruption  in 
Rumania  practised  by  Germans  and  Russians  in 
order  to  influence  public  opinion.  It  is  certain 
that  corruption  existed;  but  the  enemy  bought 
those  who  were  for  sale.  I  remember  that  the 
Germans  paid  £40,000  to  a  journalist  who  had 
been  implicated  in  many  shady  affairs.  When 
asked  why  they  were  lavishing  money  on  such  in- 
dividuals, they  answered:  "We  have  to  buy  the  dis- 
honest ones;  the  honest  ones  do  not  take  money." 
But  though  a  few  degenerates  may  have  been  paid 
for  their  work,  there  was  a  small  but  sincere  cur- 
rent of  opinion  in  Rumania  opposed  to  the  popu- 
lar desire.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  Germans 
exploited  the  situation;  it  was  obviously  in  their 
interest  to  do  so.  The  strife  between  these  two 
currents  lasted  two  years.  This  was  the  painful 
period  of  uncertainty.  "Nothing  is  more  diffi- 
cult than  to  make  a  decision,"  said  Napoleon,  who 
was  a  man  of  action.  How  much  more  difficult 
was  it  for  Rumania,  a  little,  isolated  state,  with 
the  puzzling  Russian  menace  at  her  back,  with 
the  fate  of  Belgium  and  Serbia  fresh  in  her  mem- 
ory, to  decide  to  make  the  supreme  choice  on 
which  the  very  existence  of  the  state  and  of  the 
nation  were  at  stake! 

The  struggle  was  severe.     The  supporters  of 
action  on  the  side  of  the  Germans  had  strong  ar- 


Rumania  and  the  War  21 

guments.  We  must  not  place  our  confidence  in  the 
Russians,  who  have  always  deceived  and  betrayed 
us.  No  matter  what  is  the  general  result  of  the 
war,  on  the  Eastern  front  the  Russians  are  bound 
to  be  beaten;  and  if  we  are  with  them,  we  shall 
have  to  share  their  fate.  It  is  true  that  our 
brothers  of  Transylvania  are  suffering;  but  the 
same  can  be  said  of  our  brothers  in  Bessarabia. 
If  the  Russians  are  victorious  and  take  the  Dar- 
danelles, we  shall  be  their  economic  slaves,  and 
then  also  their  political  slaves.  Technically  speak- 
ing, we  cannot  make  war  against  Austria,  because 
we  have  no  munitions,  and  no  possibility  of  bring- 
ing in  munitions,  our  Western  allies  being  too  dis- 
tant and  the  way  through  the  White  Sea  too  long; 
while  if  we  are  on  the  side  of  Germany,  we  can 
bring  in  quickly  plenty  of  munitions. 

In  conclusion  they  quoted  the  authentic  opinion 
of  the  German  Military  Attache,  von  Hammer- 
stein,  given  to  a  Rumanian  statesman.  "Your 
army  is  excellent;  the  soldiers  are  perfect.  You 
lack  munitions.  The  command  is  not  so  good.  If 
you  join  us,  we  shall  complete  your  command  and 
give  you  sufficient  munitions.  In  two  months' 
time  you  will  be  masters  of  Bessarabia  and  the  Ru- 
manian portions  of  Kherson  and  Podolia  up  to  the 
River  Bug,  including  Odessa.  If  you  go  against 
us,  the  command  will  be  weaker  still,  because  you 


22  Rumania  and  the  War 

will  fight  together  with  the  Russians,  who  have 
proved  to  be  badly  commanded.  You  will  have 
no  munitions  because  the  Russians  are  themselves 
lacking,  and  your  other  allies  are  too  far  away. 
In  three  months'  time  your  whole  country  will  be 
occupied  by  German  armies." 

I  must  add  that  at  the  time  Rumania  was  en- 
tirely lacking  in  heavy  and  mountain  artillery, 
airplanes,  machine  guns,  gas  masks,  and  all  the 
equipment  which  has  been  found  to  be  absolutely 
necessary  during  the  last  two  years  of  modern 
warfare.  In  addition  to  this,  we  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  most  important  fact  that  Rumania, 
having  been  allied  to  the  Central  Powers,  had 
made  all  her  strategical  works,  fortifications,  etc., 
solely  for  defense  against  Russia.  We  must  also 
remember  that  the  front  on  the  line  of  the  Pruth 
against  Russia  was  only  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  while  the  Carpathians  and  the  Danube  ag- 
gregate a  front  of  over  one  thousand  miles,  and 
that  the  salient  of  Wallachia  was  exposed  from 
the  very  beginning  to  an  attack  on  two  fronts, 
which  we  were  unable  to  meet  adequately  owing 
to  numerical  inferiority  and  to  the  lack  of  strategi- 
cal railways  for  quick  communication  on  interior 
lines.  The  arguments  were  so  forcible  and  the 
facts  so  irrefutable  that  reply  was  difficult. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  these  arguments,  the  instinct 


Rumania  and  the  War  23 

of  the  masses  led  them  to  different  views.  The 
Rumanian  people  had  always  been  the  oppressed, 
never  the  oppressor.  They  could  see  that  in  this 
war  Germany  was  the  aggressor,  and  that  justice 
was  distinctly  on  the  side  of  England  and  France. 
Imbued  with  democratic  tendencies,  the  Ruma- 
nians saw  that,  setting  aside  national  particular- 
istic sentiments,  this  war  represented  the  fight  be- 
tween two  systems :  the  system  of  the  divine  right 
of  autocracy  on  one  side,  and  the  system  of  the 
rights  of  the  people  and  of  democracy  on  the 
other.  On  this  side  was  fighting  England,  mother 
of  all  constitutions,  and  France,  descendant  of  the 
revolution,  France  who  has  helped  us  to  accom- 
plish our  national  unity  and  whose  culture  we 
have  all  eagerly  absorbed.  Even  if  we  for  our 
part  were  to  be  partially  destroyed,  the  democ- 
racies would  emerge  triumphant  in  the  long  run, 
and  our  cause  would  be  won.  England  had  al- 
ways kept  her  word;  she  would  not  leave  her 
wounded  ally  forever  in  the  clutch  of  her  enemies. 
Technically,  the  war  against  Germany  was  almost 
impossible.  Morally,  it  was  all  the  more  impos- 
sible to  fight  against  England,  France,  and  Italy, 
even  though  they  were  allied  with  the  unfriendly 
Tsarist  Russia.  This,  in  brief,  is  the  tragedy  of 
two  years  of  uncertainty. 

I  leave  you  to  judge  whether  a  people  has  ever 


24  Rumania  and  the  War 

been  put  face  to  face  with  a  more  difficult  prob- 
lem: just  national  claims  on  both  sides,  technical 
impossibility  of  fighting  against  one  side,  moral 
impossibility  of  fighting  against  the  other.  And 
yet  it  was  imperative  to  make  a  decision.  Ru- 
mania could  not  remain  inactive  in  this  war,  the 
end  of  which  would  see  the  settlement  of  all 
nations,  without  incurring  the  penalty  of  being 
excluded  from  the  roll  of  honor  of  the  nations  and 
of  renouncing  forever  all  her  ideals  as  unworthy 
of  fulfilling  them. 

The  honest  and  sincere  patriots  saw  all  these 
difficulties,  They  knew  that  the  Western  nations 
were  conscious  of  them;  and  they  believed,  natur- 
ally enough,  that  the  Allies  would  so  arrange  af- 
fairs as  to  yield  the  maximum  of  benefit  from  the 
intervention  of  Rumania.  They  thought  and  hoped 
that  the  Allies  could  find  a  means  of  useful  co- 
operation on  the  part  of  Rumania  with  them.  The 
reinforced  armies  of  Russia,  the  new  successful 
offensive  of  Brusilof  on  one  side,  the  army  of  Sar- 
rail  on  the  other,  were  the  two  supports  to  which 
Rumania  looked.  Her  flanks  being  effectively 
sustained,  a  useful  offensive  on  her  part  was  pos- 
sible. In  the  midst  of  these  anxieties,  of  pitiful 
uncertainties,  and  expectations,  on  the  2yth  of 
August,  1916,  the  Rumanian  Government  de- 
clared war  on  Austria.  Alea  jacta!  The  enthu- 


Rumania  and  the  War  25 

siasm  was  great  in  the  hearts  of  all  Rumanians. 
For  the  first  time  after  many  centuries  they  had 
made  the  first  step  toward  the  fulfilment  of  the 
holy  ideal  of  national  unity.  But  being  conscious 
of  the  immensity  of  their  task  and  the  number  of 
the  difficulties  in  the  way,  they  showed  an  emotion 
not  expansive  in  accordance  with  their  accustomed 
character,  but  grave,  dignified,  and  restrained. 

Three  days  after  the  declaration  of  war,  all 
the  passes  of  the  Carpathians  towards  Transyl- 
vania were  occupied,  and  after  a  few  weeks  one- 
third  of  Transylvania  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Ru- 
manian army.  I  myself  witnessed  the  great  enthu- 
siasm of  the  liberated  Rumanian  population  of 
Transylvania.  Women,  old  men,  and  children 
crying  for  joy  at  their  liberation!  Poor  people! 
They  paid  dearly  for  their  few  moments  of  joy; 
for  after  the  retreat  of  the  Rumanian  army  about 
14,000  Rumanians  were  done  to  death  by  the 
Hungarian  authorities  for  having  sided  with  their 
kinsmen. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  first  flashes  of 
joy  began  also  bitterness  and  painful  experience. 
From  the  first  days  of  the  war  Bucharest  was  in- 
cessantly bombarded  by  day  and  night  by  the 
Zeppelins  and  airplanes,  without  being  able  to  de- 
fend itself;  and  the  Bulgarians,  under  German 
leadership,  began  to  assault  from  the  south,  al- 


26  Rumania  and  the  War 

though  they  had  given  assurances  to  the  Russians 
and  Rumanians  that  they  would  never  attack  their 
liberators  from  the  Turkish  rule  (they  gave  simi- 
lar assurances  also  in  1915  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment that  they  would  not  make  war  on  the  Ser- 
bians, and  for  this  reason  the  Serbians  were  pre- 
vented from  attacking  the  Bulgarians  before  they 
were  fully  mobilized) .  After  two  weeks  of  hard 
struggle  Turtucaia,  the  key  to  the  Dobrudja,  fell 
into  their  hands.  Who  will  relate  the  bravery  of 
the  two  regiments  of  frontier  guards  who,  defy- 
ing fate  and  shouting  their  battle  cry,  "We  shall 
not  stop  until  we  reach  Sofia,"  pushed  back  ten 
miles  the  numerically  much  superior  Bulgaro- 
German  hordes?  Of  6,000  of  them,  there  re- 
mained one  hundred  and  sixty,  after  inflicting 
double  those  losses  upon  their  enemies.  Supreme 
sacrifice  but  futile,  because  there  were  behind  no 
reserves  to  replace  them. 

Thus,  from  the  beginning  the  fight  was  on  two 
fronts.  In  order  to  defend  Dobrudja,  where  the 
Russians  had  not  arrived  as  promised  in  sufficient 
number,  it  was  found  necessary  to  detach  troops 
from  the  expeditionary  force  in  Transylvania, 
which,  together  with  the  brave  Serbian  and  Czech 
legions,  and  with  feeble  Russian  help,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  holding  in  check  to  the  South  of  Medgi- 
dia  the  armies  of  Mackensen  during  two  months. 


WITH    THE    RUMANIAN    ARMY — MAXIM    SECTION    DRIVING    DOWN    A 
STEEP     EMBANKMENT  I 


Rumania  and  the  War  27 

Meanwhile,  the  concentration  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  and  the  German  troops  was  finished — this 
was  all  the  easier  for  them,  since  during  all  the 
Rumanian  campaign  there  was  absolute  inactivity 
on  all  other  fronts — and  the  Rumanian  armies, 
still  lacking  in  necessary  material,  heavy  artillery, 
machine  guns,  and  airplanes,  were  forced  to  re- 
tire in  disorder  into  their  country. 

At  the  frontier,  the  peasant  soldiers  knelt  in 
front  of  their  officers  and,  imploring  them,  said: 
"We  will  all  die  here;  but  we  cannot  retire  any 
further  and  let  the  enemy  invade  the  country." 
Three  months  with  their  breasts  they  held  the 
crests  of  the  mountains.  All  the  attempts  of  the 
enemy  to  penetrate  were  in  vain.  At  a  first  at- 
tempt, in  the  Jiu  valley,  even  women  and  boy 
scouts  took  part  in  the  fight  and  the  enemy  was  re- 
pulsed. During  all  this  trying  period  the  Ru- 
manians were  looking  round  them  in  wonderment: 
"Why  do  not  the  Russians  come  to  help  us?  Why 
does  not  Sarrail  move  to  attack  the  Bulgarians  in 
the  south?"  They  were  at  a  loss;  they  could  find 
no  answer,  and  continued  the  fight  alone.  After  a 
time  the  Russians  came,  not  to  lend  a  hand  where 
the  fight  was  raging,  but  to  take  the  positions  oc- 
cupied by  the  Rumanians  in  Moldavia,  sending 
them  to  the  firing  line  instead.  When  the  fight 
was  hard  for  the  Rumanians,  and  they  wanted 


28  Rumania  and  the  War 

help,  the  Russians  remained  behind  the  front,  in- 
different. Strange  things  also  happened.  When, 
for  instance,  Turtucaia  fell,  and  all  the  Rumanians 
were  mourning,  the  Russian  Commander  Zaian- 
chikovsky  and  his  staff  were  banqueting  in  Med- 
gidia. 

Without  help  from  anywhere,  incessantly 
pressed  by  superior  forces  and  armament,  after 
three  months  of  resistance  the  Jiu  pass  was  forced, 
the  hordes  invaded  the  plains  of  Oltenia,  and  from 
now  onward  the  great  salient  of  Wallachia  could 
no  longer  resist,  being  taken  as  in  pincers  on  the 
north  by  Falkenhayn  and  on  the  south  by  Macken- 
sen,  who  had  crossed  the  Danube  at  several  points. 
A  last  attempt  to  save  Bucharest  was  made  in  the 
battle  of  the  river  Neajlov,  in  the  same  spot  where 
three  hundred  years  ago  Michael  the  Brave  had 
defeated  the  Turks.  Unfortunately,  this  did  not 
succeed;  and  on  the  6th  of  December,  Bucharest 
itself  capitulated. 

Now  the  fate  of  the  whole  of  Wallachia  was 
sealed,  and  in  consequence  it  had  to  be  evacuated 
entirely.  In  December,  1916,  the  Russo-Ruma- 
nian  Army  made  a  stand  and  fortified  itself  on  the 
line  of  the  Sereth.  Owing  to  this  retreat  Dob- 
rudja  also  could  not  be  held,  and  had  to  be  left  to 
its  fate.  In  four  months  the  best  and  richest  part 
of  the  country  was  lost,  with  immense  quantities 


Rumania  and  the  War  29 

of  cereals  and  petroleum.  The  latter,  however, 
was  destroyed,  together  with  all  the  plant  neces- 
sary for  its  extraction  and  refinement,  by  a  British 
mission.  Half  of  the  country  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy,  and  the  first  part  of  the  war  was  lost. 
The  situation,  however,  was  not  yet  desperate. 
We  had  still  an  army  able  to  fight  and  still  our 
hope  was  unquenched. 

Before  going  into  a  description  of  the  second 
part  of  the  war,  I  must  insist  a  little  on  the  causes 
of  the  Rumanian  disaster.  At  that  time  we  did 
not  yet  possess  all  the  data  enabling  us  to  explain 
it.  Since  then,  however,  some  events  have  occur- 
red, and  some  secret  information  has  transpired, 
which  give  us  the  possibility  of  forming  a  definite 
opinion.  The  elements  of  this  judgment  are  fur- 
nished by  the  declarations  of  the  Rumanian  Gov- 
ernment regarding  the  conditions  on  which  Ru- 
mania came  into  the  war,  by  the  debates  at  the 
trial  of  General  Sukhomlinof,  by  the  affair  Paix- 
Seailles,  by  the  Russian  secret  records,  and  by 
the  attitude,  during  its  last  days,  of  the  Tsarist 
regime  toward  Rumania. 

The  Rumanian  Government,  without  divulging 
the  secret  treaties,  by  various  publications  and  con- 
versations declared  that  the  entry  of  Rumania 
into  action  had  been  demanded  at  the  time  by  the 
Allies.  But,  having  in  view  the  lack  of  armament 


30  Rumania  and  the  War 

and  the  great  extension  of  the  front,  Rumania  had 
formulated  certain  conditions  which  had  to  be 
fulfilled  entirely  if  her  intervention  was  to  have 
any  success.  These  conditions  were :  ( i )  an  im- 
mediate and  simultaneous  offensive  of  the  Rus- 
sian army,  whose  left  wing  commanded  by  Brusi- 
lof  was  to  join  the  Rumanian  right  wing  in  the 
northeast  of  Transylvania;  (2)  the  sending  of 
sufficient  Russian  forces  to  protect  the  Dobrudja 
and  the  Danube  against  the  Bulgarians  (an  army 
of  only  a  few  hundred  thousand  was  necessary  for 
this  operation)  ;  (3)  and  last,  a  simultaneous  of- 
fensive of  the  army  at  Salonica,  which  was  said 
to  be  400,000  strong.  It  was  thought  that  this 
army,  advancing  to  the  north,  would  destroy  the 
Bulgarians  and  operate  the  junction  with  the  Ru- 
manian left  wing.  Instead  of  this,  what  hap- 
pened? Brusilof  did  not  move  at  all,  and  the 
armies  under  the  command  of  the  Rumanian  Gen- 
eral Presan  waited  vainly  for  two  months  for  the 
Russians  to  join  them.  In  Dobrudja,  instead  of 
200,000  men,  only  20,000  were  sent;  and  the 
army  of  General  Sarrail  made  at  Salonica  and 
toward  Monastir  only  a  few  demonstrations  of 
artillery. 

Why  all  this  ?  Sarrail  could  not  move.  From 
the  affair  Seailles  we  learn  that  at  the  time,  Sar- 
rail had  no  more  than  50,000  to  60,000  men,  an 


Rumania  and  the  War  31 

army  which  naturally  could  not  take  an  offensive. 
On  the  Russian  side  the  position  was  more  com- 
plicated. The  man  who  had  been  entrusted  by  all 
the  Allies  to  act  with  Rumania  was  Sturmer,  who 
actually  sent  an  ultimatum  to  the  Rumanian  Gov- 
ernment, asking  them  to  join  now  or  never.  It 
is  now  a  well-established  fact  that  Sturmer  was 
a  German  agent,  the  man  of  Rasputin  and  of  the 
Tsarina.  From  the  proceedings  of  the  Sukhom- 
linof  trial  we  learn  the  consternation  which  was 
created  in  Russia  and  in  all  the  Russian  embassies 
abroad  when  Sturmer  was  called  to  take  the  lead 
of  the  country.  He  was  the  last  man  whom  the 
Allies  and  Rumania  could  have  trusted.  This 
traitor  had  already  arranged  the  peace  with  Ger- 
many. Among  other  stipulations  of  their  treaty, 
Moldavia  was  to  go  to  Russia,  and  Wallachia  to 
be  partitioned  between  Austro-Germany  and  Hun- 
gary. The  entry  of  Rumania  into  the  war  and 
her  crushing  were  necessary  to  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment as  a  pretext  for  peace.  And  naturally 
Russia  acted  consciously  and  earnestly  towards 
that  end. 

This  is  the  pure  truth.  And  in  the  light  of  these 
facts  it  is  easy  to  explain  why  the  Russians  lent 
us  only  an  illusory  help ;  why  they  stayed  unmoved 
behind  our  front  witnessing  how  we  were  being 
crushed,  while  instead  of  defending  the  Dobrudja, 


32  Rumania  and  the  War 

they  were  robbing  and  destroying  it;  why,  while 
we  were  in  the  agonies  of  death,  they  were  ban- 
queting. But  there  are  other  concrete  facts  which 
strengthen  this  affirmation.  In  the  Russian  secret 
records,  Polivanof,  a  Russian  high  official,  writes 
that  what  happened  was  to  be  desired,  and  ex- 
plains that  if  Rumania  had  fulfilled  her  national 
ideals — to  which  end  Russia  by  treaty  was  bound 
to  help  her — she  might  also  have  demanded  the 
retrocession  of  Bessarabia,  which  is  inhabited  by 
Rumanians.  The  strengthening  of  Rumania  was 
not  compatible  with  Russian  interests.  In  Jan- 
uary and  February,  1917,  all  the  steps  were  taken 
at  Jassy  for  the  definite  occupation  of  Moldavia 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  between  the  Tsar 
and  the  Kaiser.  The  Russian  Minister  Poklev- 
sky,  who  worked  for  the  alliance  between  Russia 
and  Rumania  and  was  suspected  of  sympathies 
with  Rumania,  was  replaced  by  General  Masolof, 
former  Adjutant  of  the  Tsar,  who  was  an  outsider 
in  diplomacy,  but  who  knew  all  the  intimate 
secrets  and  plans  of  the  Russian  Court.  General 
Lechitzky,  the  Russian  Commander,  declared  can- 
didly that  he  received  orders  to  make  only  a  mili- 
tary occupation  of  Moldavia.  The  Russian  offi- 
cers became  very  arrogant,  took  possession  of  rail- 
way stations,  trains,  and  public  buildings,  and 
were  warning  us  that  in  a  few  weeks  we  should 


Rumania  and  the  War  33 

see  who  were  the  real  masters  of  the  country. 
On  the  other  hand,  comfortable  trains  were  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  rich  and  intellectual  classes 
and  also  the  members  of  Parliament,  who  were 
being  induced  voluntarily  to  expatriate  themselves 
and  make  room  for  the  new  Russian  occupants! 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  describe  the  terrible  times 
through  which  the  Rumanian  population  had  to 
pass  then! 

In  the  meantime  the  Russian  Revolution  had 
broken  out.  The  joy  felt  in  Rumania  at  this  news 
is  also  very  difficult  to  describe.  We  were  at  last 
freed  from  the  nightmare  of  the  Tsarist  occupa- 
tion and  of  a  peace  to  our  detriment;  and  we 
said,  simpletons  as  we  were,  that  in  the  revolution 
the  Entente  had  gained  a  fourth  ally.  We  were 
thinking  of  the  French  Revolution,  fighting  against 
autocracies,  and  we  hoped  that  history  was  about 
to  repeat  itself. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  see  what  was  happening  with 
the  Rumanian  army  during  this  interval.  In 
Moldavia,  little  and  poor,  to  which  the  Army  and 
the  Government  had  retired  during  the  severe 
winter  of  1916,  the  maximum  of  suffering  brought 
about  by  this  war  in  any  part  of  the  world  was  cer- 
tainly reached.  In  addition  to  the  normal  popu- 
lation of  the  country  there  were  living  at  the 
time  in  Moldavia  the  Rumanian  army,  about 


34  Rumania  and  the  War 

1,000,000  Russians,  and  the  refugees  from  the 
Dobrudja  and  Wallachia.  The  population  was 
thus  more  than  doubled.  The  supplies,  however, 
for  this  population  had  diminished  to  the  vanish- 
ing point.  Food  was  lacking;  there  was  no  coal 
or  oil,  so  much  so  that  even  in  the  railway  engines 
they  had  to  burn  green  wood.  In  these  conditions 
it  is  not  astonishing  that  epidemics  soon  spread 
everywhere.  Exanthematic  typhoid,  aggravated 
by  starvation — I  have  myself  seen  whole  army 
corps  eating  for  weeks  together  only  maize  boiled 
in  water — decimated  both  the  army  and  the  civil- 
ian population.  The  cemetery  in  Jassy  alone,  a 
town  of  70,000  people  in  normal  times,  received 
that  winter  over  100,000  dead;  over  one-third  of 
the  medical  staff  (nearly  three  hundred  doctors) 
succumbed  to  this  terrible  disease,  and  the  whole 
population  of  some  villages  disappeared.  It  was 
desolation  and  misery  in  their  blackest  form.  Not- 
withstanding all  this,  courage  and  hope  were  not 
entirely  lost. 

Help  from  far-away  France  and  England  be- 
gan to  arrive ;  armaments,  clothing,  medicines  and 
the  medical  staff,  nurses  and  the  military  missions. 
The  army  began  to  be  reorganized.  With  the 
spring  also  came  the  first  rays  of  hope  in  the  shape 
of  the  Russian  revolution.  The  epidemics  dimin- 
ished somewhat,  the  supplies  from  Russia  began 


Rumania  and  the  War  35 

to  arrive  more  or  less  regularly,  and  in  May,  when 
Mr.  Albert  Thomas  inspected  the  Rumanian 
troops  and  saw  them  so  active  and  stalwart,  he 
enthusiastically  exclaimed:  "One  might  say  they 
are  real  Poilus."  And  indeed,  except  for  their 
language,  they  were  real  Poilus.  They  had  the 
same  dash,  the  same  courage,  and  the  same  con- 
tempt for  death  and  enemies  as  their  French  and 
English  comrades.  They  were  impatient  to  be 
again  led  to  the  attack,  this  time  well-supported 
by  heavy  artillery,  machine-guns,  and  airplanes; 
and  they  were  eager  to  see  their  enemies  out  of 
the  country  and  out  of  Transylvania.  At  that 
time,  in  an  enthusiastic  assault,  in  two  days  they 
pushed  the  enemy  back  twenty  miles!  Their  joy 
knew  no  bounds.  The  third  day,  however,  the 
fatality  which  seems  to  follow  the  Rumanians  put 
a  stop  to  both  their  joy  and  their  advance.  In 
Bukovina  and  Galicia  the  Russians  were  flying  be- 
fore their  enemies.  They  had  evacuated  Tarno- 
pol  and  were  refusing  to  fight.  The  Russian  revo- 
lution was  different  from  the  French  one.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  advance  of  the  Ruma- 
nians was  in  vain.  Owing  to  the  retreat  of  the 
Russians,  which  left  our  right  wing  unprotected, 
we  could  have  been  attacked  from  behind.  The 
Rumanians  had  to  stop.  They  sent  forces  to  de- 
fend the  north  of  Moldavia,  left  unprotected  by 


36  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  Russians,  and  prepared  for  the  great  defen- 
sive which  culminated  in  the  battles  of  Mareshti 
and  Marasheshti  in  August.  The  Austro-Ger- 
mans,  taking  advantage  of  the  retreat  of  the  Rus- 
sians, were  preparing  to  destroy  the  Rumanian 
army  and  invade  Moldavia. 

Hastily  the  Rumanian  Government  made  prepa- 
rations to  face  all  eventualities.  They  sent  all 
the  gold  and  valuables  to  Moscow — which  ap- 
peared to  them  to  be  a  very  safe  place.  When  the 
confidential  reports  of  the  British  and  French 
military  attaches  regarding  these  battles  are  pub- 
lished, they  will  constitute  the  best  testimony  to 
the  valor  of  Rumanian  soldiers.  In  the  thick  of 
the  battle  the  Rumanians,  stripped  to  the  waist, 
charged  the  enemy  with  the  bayonet,  clubbed  their 
rifles,  and,  when  they  were  at  too  close  quarters 
threw  their  rifles  away  and  flew  at  the  throats  of 
their  enemies,  whom  they  slew  furiously.  Per- 
haps having  in  mind  the  description  of  these  fights, 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  referred  to  the  Rumanian  sol- 
dier as  being  one  of  the  best  in  the  world.  Mr. 
Robert  de  Flers,  the  distinguished  French  writer 
and  journalist,  who  was  an  eye-witness  during  this 
eventful  time,  says :  "One  does  not  render  suffi- 
cient account  in  England  of  the  difficulties  of  their 
performance.  When  that  is  known,  I  think  your 
fellow-countrymen  will  pay  them  profound  horn- 


Rumania  and  the  War  37 

age.  The  reconstituted  army  of  Rumania  van- 
quished the  army  of  Mackensen  and  reconstituted 
the  Eastern  front." 

Since  then,  Rumania  has  been  passing  through 
another  period  of  anxiety,  the  equal  of  which 
could  hardly  be  found  in  history.  Her  brave  sons 
are  looking  with  broken  hearts  and  contempt  at 
their  Russian  comrades  fraternizing  with  their 
bitterest  enemies.  They  hoped  from  day  to  day 
that  they  would  come  to  their  senses,  and  would 
start  again  the  fight  for  honor  and  liberty.  But 
they  hoped  in  vain.  Instead  of  recuperating,  Rus- 
sia was  falling  into  anarchy.  After  fraternizing, 
the  Russians  left  the  front  and  went  into  the  in- 
terior of  their  country  to  start  the  fratricidal 
fight  against  their  own  kin.  On  their  way  through 
Moldavia,  which  had  fed  them  during  a  whole 
year,  they  were  pillaging,  burning  and  violating. 
And  then  the  Rumanians  were  reluctantly  obliged 
to  turn  their  arms  against  their  former  allies,  in 
order  to  protect  the  little  that  was  left  to  them 
by  their  old  enemies.  After  destroying  Rumania, 
the  Russians  went  home  and  betrayed  their  own 
people ;  and  that  is  how  the  Ukrainians  were  the 
first  to  sign  an  ignominious  peace  with  the  Ger- 
mans and  bring  them  into  their  country  to  restore 
order.  This  altered  entirely  the  position  of  Ru- 
mania, because  it  placed  another  foe  at  her  back, 


38  Rumania  and  the  War 

surrounding  her,  and  cutting  off  her  only  way  of 
retreat  and  supply  of  ammunitions  and  food.  As 
if  this  tragedy  were  not  enough,  the  Bolshevists, 
through  their  complete  lack  of  political  sense,  de- 
clared war  on  Rumania! 

Rumania  is  now  at  the  mercy  of  her  enemies. 
With  cynicism  and  barbarous  greed  they  are  im- 
posing on  her  the  most  humiliating  conditions. 
Hertling  calls  them  "friendly";  and  the  arch- 
cynical  Czernin  declares  that  they  are  in  con- 
formity with  the  principle  of  self-determination! 
Rumania  is  on  her  knees  with  the  knife  at  her 
throat,  robbed  of  her  richest,  most  beautiful,  and 
purely  Rumanian  provinces,  humiliated  and  en- 
slaved economically,  and  forced  to  accept  a  Ger- 
man peace,  in  order  to  escape  for  the  time  being 
from  total  destruction  as  a  race.  "With  the  best 
army  of  the  oriental  front  and  one  of  the  best  of 
the  Coalition,  Rumania  is  at  the  mercy  of  her 
enemies,  who  are  surrounding  her  on  all  sides. 
But  when  one  is  left  alone  in  a  coffin  of  lead,  the 
best  thing  is  to  bow  to  destiny!"  says  Mr.  William 
Martin,  in  the  Journal  de  Geneve  of  the  28th 
February!  This  is  the  tragedy  of  Rumania! 

To  those  who  may  ask  what  was  the  advantage 
brought  by  Rumania  to  the  cause  of  her  Allies 
through  her  sacrifice  I  will  answer  that  the  sacri- 
fice is  a  value  in  itself.  It  remains  alive  and  intact, 


Rumania  and  the  War  39 

like  the  great  principle  for  which  the  sacrifice  was 
made.  We  did  not  start  the  fight  in  the  hope  of 
securing  the  triumph  of  right  by  our  own  force 
alone.  The  monster  was  far  too  powerful  to  be 
put  down  by  our  single  arm.  But  either  by  our 
sacrifice  or  by  our  force  we  planted  the  dagger 
deep  into  his  flanks;  his  wounds  bled  much;  he  was 
weakened;  and  this  rendered  easier  for  a  time  the 
task  of  our  comrades  from  the  West.  Remem- 
ber the  moral  depression  in  Germany  at  the  news 
of  the  entry  of  Rumania  on  the  side  of  the  Allies, 
the  forces  which  Germany  was  obliged  to  take 
from  the  western  front  in  order  to  face  our  at- 
tack, the  loss  of  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dead  and  wounded  inflicted  by  us,  the  calm  en- 
joyed by  the  western  front  during  our  fighting. 
Take  also  into  consideration  our  own  great  losses, 
and  you  will  understand  the  importance  of  Ruma- 
nia's action.  The  great  French  statesman,  Mon- 
sieur Briand,  who  invited  Rumania  to  come  in  at 
the  time  when  she  did  come  in,  being  asked  a 
short  time  ago  why  he  took  that  decision  at  a  time 
and  in  circumstances  so  unfavorable  to  Rumania, 
replied:  "If  I  had  not  done  that  then,  you  and  I 
should  not  be  now  conversing  in  Paris. "  This 
reply  defines  sufficiently  the  part  played  by  Ru- 
mania. If  there  had  been  unity  of  action,  unity  of 
command,  Rumania  could  have  done  more;  but 


4O  Rumania  and  the  War 

criticism  and  recrimination  may  be  left  to  history. 
For  almost  twenty  centuries  of  its  existence  the 
Rumanian  people  has  gone  through  many  a 
tragedy.  The  most  recent  is  under  another  form, 
a  sequence  of  the  previous  ones.  Being  in  the  path 
of  the  barbarian  Asiatic  invaders,  the  Rumanians 
retired  to  the  mountains,  where  they  lived  forgot- 
ten for  many  centuries.  When  the  invaders  set- 
tled down,  they  appeared  again  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  middle  ages,  and  attained  the  sum- 
mit of  their  greatness  during  the  reigns  of  Mircea 
the  Old  and  Stephen  the  Great.  The  seed  of  the 
barbarians  has  not,  however,  disappeared.  On 
the  west  there  lived  then,  as  they  do  now,  the  Hun- 
garians; on  the  south,  the  Turks  and  Bulgarians; 
on  the  east,  the  Russians  and  the  Tartars.  The 
small  nucleus  of  Latinity,  then  and  now,  had  to 
face  and  fight  them  all.  In  his  long  reign  of  fifty 
years  Stephen  the  Great  overcame  each  in  turn; 
but  the  permanent  difficulty  of  the  Rumanian  sit- 
uation is  expressed  in  prophetic  words  put  into 
his  mouth: 

If  your  foe  exacts  from  you  humiliating  trials,  it  will 
then  be  better  for  you  to  die  by  his  sword  that  to  witness 
the  downfall  and  slavery  of  your  country.  The  God  of 
your  fathers  will,  however,  take  pity  on  the  tears  of  his 
servants,  and  will  cause  one  of  you  to  rise  who  will 
establish  again  for  your  descendants  the  power  and  glory 
of  past  times. 


WITH  THE  RUMANIAN  ARMY  IN  THE  FIELD.      A  PRIEST  BLESSING  REGIMENTAL  COLORS 


Rumania  and  the  War  41 

History  continues.  The  descendants  of  the 
barbarians  who  even  now  still  inhabit  Europe, 
helped  now  by  the  descendants  of  the  Germanic 
tribes,  deadly  enemies  of  the  Romans  and  of 
Latinity,  have  flown  like  beasts  on  the  Rumanian 
nation,  trying  to  rend  it.  The  man  dreamed  of  by 
Stephen  the  Great  has  not  appeared. 

Nowadays,  the  conscience  of  all  the  nations  re- 
places the  might  of  the  individual.  If  in  the  past 
the  Rumanians  were  fighting  alone  in  the  Orient, 
ignored  by  all,  to-day  they  have  found  support  in 
the  conscience  and  the  soul  of  the  great  nations  of 
the  west,  England,  America,  France,  and  Italy. 
These  will  not  tolerate  their  destruction;  for  as 
a  faithful  ally  Rumania  has  honestly  fulfilled  her 
task  to  the  end.  She  has  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of 
the  common  cause  all  her  country  with  its  riches, 
and  over  one  million  souls.  But  her  greatest  sor- 
row is  that  for  the  moment  Fate  forbids  that  she 
should  do  still  more. 

Crushed  and  humiliated  for  the  time  being,  the 
poor  Rumanian  nation  has  only  one  hope  which 
enables  it  to  live.  One  day,  a  day  not  far  distant, 
will  come  the  time,  the  final  hour,  the  hour  of 
victory  for  the  great  democracies  of  the  world. 
Then  will  be  given  to  the  peoples  a  just  peace,  not 
the  peace  of  the  cynical  beast  and  the  hypocrite 
robber.  But  should  the  worst  come  to  the  worst, 


42  Rumania  and  the  War 

should  the  democracies  of  the  world  not  under- 
stand that  Rumania's  cause  is  their  cause,  and 
should  she  be  left  to  her  executioners,  the  Ru- 
manian nation  would  never  yield.  From  the  tomb 
our  cry  will  be  heard;  the  conscience  of  the  world 
will  have  no  rest.  Like  our  ancestors  in  days 
of  yore  under  oppression  and  alien  domination, 
we  will  take  again  the  way  of  the  forest;  we  will 
defy  them  by  every  desperate  device  of  the  de- 
spairing. But  we  will  never  tolerate  that  our  foes 
should  destroy  our  race  and  our  national  soul. 

I  am  confident  that  we  shall  not  be  reduced  to 
that  extremity.  Confident  in  the  civilization  and 
the  progress  of  humanity,  we  are  certain  that  the 
day  will  come  when  the  victorious  allied  armies 
will  pass  over  the  hideous  corpse  of  German  mili- 
tarism, and  will  give  to  the  thirsting  world,  Ger- 
many included,  the  much-longed  for  peace,  the 
peace  of  justice  and  right.  Then  justice  will  be 
done  also  for  the  martyred  and  long-enduring 
Rumanian  people.  Then  the  new  spirit  of  world 
democracy,  rather  than  the  superman  dreamed  of 
by  Stephen  the  Great,  "will  rise,"  as  he  foretold, 
"and  will  establish  again  for  your  descendants  the 
power  and  glory  of  yore." 

An  old  Rumanian  proverb  says,  "The  Ruma- 
nian never  dies."  He  will  not  die.  Trdiasca  Ro- 
mania! N.  LUPU. 


SOME  FACTS  OF  HISTORY  AND 
GEOGRAPHY 

HE  most  sensitive  part  of  the  European  con- 
tinent  is  that  middle  portion  which  begins 
with  Poland  and  ends  in  the  Balkan  States.  Owing 
to  various  historical  events,  a  firmly  established 
equilibrium  has  not  yet  been  realized  among  the 
peoples  here.  Why  is  it  that  just  in  this  part  of 
Europe  nearly  all  wars  and  misfortunes,  including 
the  present  one,  have  started?  The  main  cause  is 
that  this  region  is  the  keystone  between  Asia  and 
Europe. 

There  have  been  three  great  movements  be- 
tween those  two  continents  in  the  last  two  thou- 
sand years.  The  first  and  shortest  was  the  Roman 
drive  into  Asia.  The  second,  which  lasted  nearly 
1000  years,  was  the  invasion  of  Rome  and  later 
of  Byzantium  by  Asiatic  peoples.  From  these 
invasions  resulted  on  the  one  side  the  fall  of  Rome 
and  Byzantium,  with  the  destruction  of  their  em- 
pires, and  on  the  other  the  mixture  of  the  invaders 
with  the  invaded,  or  the  total  disappearance  of 
the  Asiatics.  Some  groups  of  the  invaders  did 

43 


44  Rumania  and  the  War 

not  disappear;  neither  were  they  assimilated. 
They  form  to-day  distinct  peoples  in  Mid- 
Europe,  whose  right  to  life  cannot  be  denied. 
But  in  their  invasion  they  waged  cruel  wars  and 
created  long  enmities  which  still  live  to-day.  More 
than  that,  the  invaders  still  keep  under  their  sway 
portions  of  the  invaded  peoples. 

The  third  big  move  began  in  our  day.  The 
immense  German  industrial  development  wanted 
two  things,  new  and  big  markets  and  great  sup- 
plies of  raw  material.  Both  may  be  provided  by 
Asia  and,  by  an  accident  of  history,  we  are  wit- 
nessing an  inverse  phenomenon:  the  economic 
penetration  of  Asia  by  Europe.  Economic  domi- 
nation means  political  domination.  We  have  been 
witnessing  an  effort  toward  the  political  domina- 
tion of  Asia  by  the  Germans.  To-day,  as  in  the 
past,  the  way  towards  Asia  passes  through  Central 
Europe. 

Moreover  the  Balkan  States  in  the  last  cen- 
tury have  been  victims  of  another  attempt  at  con- 
quest. As  far  back  as  the  eighteenth  century,  Peter 
the  Great  left  as  his  will  for  Russian  autocrats 
the  conquest  of  Constantinople.  The  way  from 
Russia  to  Constantinople  is  through  Rumania: 
hence  the  infinite  series  of  wars  between  Russia 
and  Turkey  was  suported  largely  by  the  two  Ru- 
manian countries,  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  In 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       45 

the  nineteenth  century  alone  there  were  six  wars. 
Belgium  and  Rumania  stand  out  as  the  two  coun- 
tries on  the  map  of  Europe  where  the  most  nu- 
merous wars  have  taken  place.  After  the  Rus- 
sian dream  of  Asiatic  empire  came  that  of  Ger- 
many, looking  for  a  way  to  Asia  through  Constan- 
tinople. And  to  make  this  way  safe  for  them- 
selves, the  Germans  promised  the  Bulgarians  the 
domination  of  the  Balkans  in  spite  of  Bismarck's 
statement  that  the  Balkan  problem  did  not  deserve 
the  bones  of  a  single  German  grenadier.  The 
hypertrophy  of  the  German  appetite  has  become 
acute  in  the  last  fifty  years,  and  in  the  present  war 
for  an  ephemeral  success,  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  German  grenadiers  have  left  their  bones  on 
Rumanian  fields  for  the  Balkan  problem. 

Upon  the  establishment  of  satisfactory  new  con- 
ditions in  Mid-Europe  will  depend,  to  a  very  large 
degree,  the  maintenance  of  future  peace.  If  we 
look  at  an  ethnographical  map  of  Mid-Europe  we 
see  that  the  Rumanian  people,  descendants  of  the 
Eastern  Roman  Empire,  as  France  and  Italy  are 
of  the  Western,  is  established  in  a  compact  mass 
on  the  land  surrounded  by  the  Rivers  Tisza, 
Dniester  and  Danube.  Numerous  Rumanian 
islands  lie  also  beyond  the  Dniester.  In  the 
Ukraine,  as  far  as  the  neighborhood  of  Kiev, 
there  is  a  dense  group  of  Moldavians  in  nearly 


46  Rumania  and  the  War 

every  village.  Their  number  may  be  between 
six  hundred  thousand  and  one  million.  In  the 
Balkans,  in  the  mounts  of  Pindus,  in  Thessaly, 
Epirus  and  Macedonia,  there  are  more  than  half 
a  million  Vlachs  or  Rumanians.  And  in  Serbia 
in  the  Timok  Valley,  they  number  about  two  hun- 
dred thousand.  A  German  scholar,  accustomed  to 
ideas  of  conquest  and  depredation,  once  said  that 
the  Rumanian  race  spreads  in  the  east  and  south 
like  an  oil  spot  on  paper.  These  spots  are  the  rem- 
nant islands  of  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire  sub- 
merged by  the  waves  of  the  invaders,  Slavs,  Rus- 
sians, Bulgars,  Hungarians  and  Turks. 

As  a  result  of  the  first  invasion  from  Asia  we 
find  at  the  present  time  the  Rumanian  people  in  the 
following  position :  A  homogeneous  group  between 
the  Tisza,  the  Dniester  and  the  Danube  and  some 
dispersed  groups  beyond  the  Dniester  and  in  the 
Balkans.  Ever  since  the  beginning  of  its  history, 
the  homogeneous  group  has  been  broken  in  two; 
one  part  in  Transylvania,  Banat  and  Hungary, 
subjected  to  the  Hungarians,  and  another  part  in 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia  (present  Rumania)  in- 
dependent and  flourishing,  till  the  arrival  of  the 
Turks  in  Europe,  when  they  also  fell  under  Turk- 
ish domination. 

During  their  best  epoch  these  countries,  espe- 
cially Moldavia,  were  on  good  terms  with  the 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       47 

Poles.  Rumanian  students  went  to  the  Polish 
universities,  and  the  first  Rumanian  historians, 
Miron  Costin  and  Ureche,  were  fellows  of  those 
universities.  Remembrance  of  past  associations 
kept  friendship  alive  between  these  two  peoples 
through  the  centuries.  In  Rumania,  the  dispersed 
sons  of  unfortunate  Poland,  after  her  repeated 
and  criminal  dividing  among  the  Russians,  Ger- 
mans and  Austrians,  always  found  shelter  and  wel- 
come. Common  past  remembrances  and  common 
hate  against  the  conquering  Czardom  established 
a  strong  bond  of  sympathy.  This  is  interesting 
for  the  near  future  of  Mid-Europe,  because  these 
two  peoples  together  form  a  continuous  belt  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea.  Solidly  established 
and  fairly  helped  in  their  development,  they  will 
constitute  the  surest  barrier  against  the  imperial- 
istic tendency  of  Germany. 

With  Russia,  before  her  hypertrophy,  the  Ru- 
manian countries  were  on  good  terms,  strength- 
ened by  the  common  faith,  the  Greek  Orthodox 
religion.  A  Moldavian,  Petru  Movila,  founded 
the  Archbishopric  of  Kiev.  The  beautiful  daugh- 
ters of  Moldavian  princes  were  married  to  Rus- 
sian Czars  and  Ukrainian  hetmans,  and  Catherine 
the  Great  wore  dresses  a  la  Moldave.  Unhappily, 
because  Russia's  tendency  toward  conquest  was 
menacing  to  the  very  existence  of  our  race,  the 


48  Rumania  and  the  War 

Russians  began  to  be  much  hated.  In  1812,  Rus- 
sia stole  Bessarabia,  part  of  Moldavia  (between 
the  Pruth  and  Dniester).  After  the  Crimean 
War,  in  1856,  the  European  Powers  gave  back 
to  Rumania  the  southern  part  of  Bessarabia,  but 
once  more  in  1877  the  Russians  as  a  fine  reward 
for  the  very  useful  help  given  by  the  Rumanians 
in  their  new  war  with  the  Turks,  took  it  back 
again.  In  the  south,  Rumania  has  had  good  neigh- 
borly relations.  But  the  Turks,  during  three  long 
centuries,  have  exercised  upon  Rumania  an  in- 
fluence contrary  to  progress.  Through  the  vic- 
torious war  of  1877,  we  finally  liberated  ourselves 
from  them. 

Our  other  southern  neighbors  are  the  Bulga- 
rians and  the  Serbs.  With  the  Bulgarians  we 
formed,  during  the  nth  century,  a  common  em- 
pire; the  Rumano-Bulgaro  Empire  of  the  As- 
sanides  dynasty,  which  was  Rumanian.  Until 
1913,  when  the  Second  Balkan  War  took  place, 
nothing  had  occurred  to  disturb  the  friendly  rela- 
tions between  the  two  peoples.  Then  came  the 
realization  of  two  factors  which  caused  embit- 
terment.  First,  although  the  Bulgars  number 
not  more  than  five  millions,  they  would  like  to 
dominate  all  the  Balkans  and  take  possession  of 
Constantinople ;  second,  the  Bulgar  nearness  to 
Constantinople,  to  which  they  form  the  hinterland, 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       49 

constituted  a  special  menace.  For  this  reason 
Austria  and  Russia  worked  their  most  skilful  in- 
trigues, culminating  in  the  Balkan  Wars  in  1912 
and  1913.  Russia  patronized  the  Balkan  Alliance, 
which  included  all  the  small  peoples  friendly  to 
Russia.  Rumania,  of  course,  was  excluded,  and 
knew  nothing  about  any  agreement.  Russia's  plan 
was  to  weaken  Turkey,  and  so  more  easily  to  take 
Constantinople.  When  the  Russians  saw  that 
the  Bulgars  were  attacking  the  Serbs  and  that  they 
wanted  Constantinople  for  themselves,  they  in- 
cited Rumania  to  enter  against  the  Bulgars  and 
frustrate  their  plans.  But  it  did  not  suit  their 
plans  to  have  Rumania  destroy  the  Bulgars,  be- 
cause they  still  believed  that  the  Bulgarian  people 
were  Russophile,  and  they  hoped  to  use  this  friend- 
liness when  they  should  become  masters  of  Con- 
stantinople. Therefore  they  prevented  the  Ru- 
manian armies  from  entering  Sofia,  the  chief  town 
of  Bulgaria. 

Rumania's  entry  into  the  Balkan  War  was  un- 
justly interpreted  in  America  and  England.  The 
truth  was  that  Rumania  attacked  a  bandit  who, 
through  the  defeat  of  Greece  and  Serbia,  had  be- 
come more  and  more  dangerous  for  her  safety. 
It  was  a  great  mistake  that  we  were  not  allowed 
to  annihilate  the  Bulgarian  military  force.  How 
many  misfortunes  would  have  been  avoided  for 


50  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  Entente  in  the  present  war!  If  Bulgaria  had 
been  rendered  harmless,  Rumania  would  not  have 
been  exposed  in  this  present  war,  as  was  Serbia, 
to  the  perfidious  attack  by  the  Bulgars.  Her  fate 
and  that  of  the  whole  oriental  front  would  have 
been  different. 

The  Austrians  were  totally  confused  by  the 
Balkan  Alliance.  When  they  discovered  it,  they 
did  all  in  their  power  to  dissolve  it.  It  was  not 
convenient  for  them  as  masters  of  millions  of 
Serbs,  to  let  these  people  strengthen  themselves 
by  the  Alliance  with  the  Bulgars  and  the  Greeks. 
It  was  far  from  desirable  to  permit  Russia  to 
exert  her  influence  upon  the  Alliance,  because  in 
this  way  Austria's  path  towards  Constantinople 
and  Salonica  would  be  hampered.  The  disloca- 
tion of  the  Bulgarians  was  the  easiest  solution  of 
the  difficulty  for  Austria-Hungary.  In  Austria- 
Hungary  there  were  no  oppressed  Bulgars,  as 
there  were  millions  of  Serbs  and  Rumanians.  The 
Austrians  assured  the  Bulgars  that  they  could 
without  any  danger  attack  the  Serbs  and  Greeks 
and  take  the  spoils  of  conquest,  because  Rumania 
would  be  stopped  by  Austria-Hungary.  They  did 
not  succeed  in  accomplishing  all  that  they  promised 
and  the  Austro-Bulgaro  hegemony  fell  in  1913, 
to  be  resuscitated  again  in  1915,  when  it  was  easy 
even  for  those  unfamiliar  with  politics  to  see  that 
Bulgaria  would  join  the  Central  Powers. 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       51 

With  the  Serbs,  Rumania  has  never  had  trou- 
ble. Both  have  endured  Hungarian  persecutions. 
Close  cultural  and  religious  relations  have  always 
existed  between  them.  One  of  the  most  honored 
Rumanian  princesses  was  a  Serb  and  one  of  the 
ruling  families  in  Serbia  had  Rumanian  family 
connections.  There  was  only  one  obstacle  to 
more  friendly  relations  between  the  Rumanians 
and  Serbs  before  1913 — the  patronage  of  Serbia 
by  Russia.  We  had  reason  to  fear  the  Russians. 
Now  that  Czardom  and  pan-Slavism  have  disap- 
peared, there  is  no  reason  for  any  misunderstand- 
ing between  Rumania  and  Serbia. 

The  northern  and  northwestern  neighbors  of 
Rumania  are  Austria  and  Hungary.  When  the 
Austrians,  or  rather  the  Hapsburgs,  were  men- 
aced by  the  Turks,  they  were  friendly  to  us.  Freed 
from  the  Turks,  the  Hapsburgs  themselves  began 
to  conquer,  sometimes  by  war,  usually  by  intrigue 
and  marriage — the  two  Imperial  devices.  In 
1777,  after  taking  Galicia,  Austria  turned  envious 
eyes  upon  Bukovina,  the  northern  part  of  Mol- 
davia. Under  the  pretext  that  she  wanted  only 
a  road  to  Galicia,  she  demanded  and  obtained 
Bukovina  from  the  Sultan.  As  an  argument  she 
sent  a  precious  cigarette-case  to  the  corrupt  Turk. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  in  Bukovina  was  the  prin- 
cipal department  of  Moldavia,  Suceava,  where 
the  most  beautiful  monasteries  and  hallowed  his- 


52  Rumania  and  the  War 

torical  relics  are  still  preserved,  to  understand 
the  pain  inflicted  on  Rumania  by  this  depreda- 
tion. After  the  annexation  the  Hapsburgs  began 
persecution.  They  favored  the  Ruthenians 
against  the  Rumanians  in  Bukovina,  although  in 
Galicia  they  persecuted  the  Ruthenians  through 
the  Poles.  This  was  the  moral  system  of  the 
Hapsburgs.  Austria  is  also  hated  by  Rumania 
because  in  1865  she  annexed  Transylvania  to 
Hungary,  thus  enslaving  the  Rumanians  of  that 
territory. 

With  the  Magyars,  the  Rumanians  have  never 
been  on  good  terms.  The  Magyars  are  not  Eu- 
ropeans. They  came  from  Asia  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury. Uninvited  guests,  they  invaded  Rumania 
and  dominated  the  people.  During  long  centu- 
ries they  persecuted  the  Rumanians  in  Transyl- 
vania, making  them  into  economic  slaves.  They 
even  forced  them  to  adopt  the  Catholic  religion 
and  speak  the  Hungarian  language.  But  all  their 
efforts  were  futile.  The  Rumanian  national  con- 
science became  stronger  with  increased  persecu- 
tions. After  the  union  of  Wallachia  and  Mol- 
davia in  1859,  when  the  present  state  of  Rumania 
was  constituted,  the  Hungarians  fearfully  antici- 
pated the  time  when  the  four  million  Rumanians  of 
Transylvania  would  demand  union  with  the  Ru- 
manians of  Rumania.  They  tried  to  Magyar- 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       53 

ize  the  Rumanians  in  the  shortest  possible  time. 
The  Rumanians  were  not  represented  in  the  Hun- 
garian Parliament.  For  four  million  population, 
the  Rumanians  had  only  four  deputies,  while  the 
Hungarians  had  four  hundred  for  eight  million. 
The  Rumanian  language  was  not  permitted  in 
Parliament  nor  in  public  life.  There  have  been  no 
schools  for  Rumanians,  no  offices  for  Rumanians. 
A  Rumanian  student  whose  family  possessed 
documents  showing  that  they  had  been  in  the 
country  since  the  twelfth  century  asked  for  a 
scholarship  to  a  certain  institution  from  the  gov- 
ernment ;  instead,  it  was  given  to  a  new  Hungarian 
citizen.  When  the  student  asked  why  he,  of  a 
family  eight  centuries  old  in  the  country,  did  not 
receive  assistance,  the  rector  answered:  "In  five 
years  this  other  man  became  a  Hungarian;  in 
eight  centuries  you  have  not!"  Freedom  of  the 
press  does  not  exist.  A  hundred  years  of  prison 
has  been  given  to  Rumanians  in  the  last  twenty 
years  for  their  opinions.  The  Rumanian  parlia- 
ment in  Hungary  is  in  the  Prison  of  Szegedin ! 
In  spite  of  all  this,  the  Rumanians  are  in  the  ma- 
jority everywhere. 

Germany  is  not  an  immediate  neighbor  of  Ru- 
mania, but  her  relations  have  had  particular  sig- 
nificance. The  old  Germany,  that  which  existed 
up  to  1871,  the  sentimentalist  and  culture-seeking 


54  Rumania  and  the  W ar 

Germany  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  was  loved  in  Ru- 
mania. At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury many  Rumanian  boys  were  in  the  universi- 
ties of  Leipzig  and  Munich,  and  many  German 
merchants  and  professional  men  were  established 
in  Rumania.  When  Rumania  elected  as  King, 
Prince  Carol  Hohenzollern,  these  relations  became 
still  closer.  But  almost  coincident  with  his  arrival, 
Prussian  arrogance  began  to  make  itself  felt  and 
Rumanian  antipathy  towards  Prussia  was  aroused. 
Before  the  war,  the  Germans,  in  spite  of  the  Ru- 
manian dislike  for  them,  were  attaining  a  strong 
economic  hold  on  the  country,  which  was  the  larg- 
est market  in  the  Balkans  for  their  trade.  Most 
of  the  oil  business  was  in  their  hands,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  public  debt  was  floated  in 
Germany.  But  not  because  the  Rumanians  pre- 
ferred it  so.  Since  1863,  when  the  last  Rumanian 
loan  was  floated  in  England,  in  spite  of  every  ef- 
fort, Rumania  has  been  unable  to  raise  a  penny 
anywhere  else.  Rumanian  loans,  however,  were 
always  in  British  and  French  money,  but  they 
passed  through  German  hands  first.  The  Ger- 
mans were  our  brokers  and  took  advantage  of  us. 
Even  the  financiers  of  France  did  not  help  us. 
The  present  Premier  of  Rumania,  Marghiloman, 
who  was  Minister  of  Finance  in  1913  after  the 
Second  Balkan  War,  went  to  Paris  to  negotiate 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography      55 

a  loan  of  250,000,000  francs.  He  did  not 
succeed  and  after  some  days  in  Berlin,  the  Ger- 
man Bank  Disconto  put  at  his  disposal  the  money 
required,  provided  by  French  capital!  I  mention 
this  fact  because,  whatever  kind  of  peace  we  may 
have,  if  the  Allies  continue  along  the  same  lines, 
the  Germans  will  again  have  economic  and  conse- 
quently political  influence;  and  the  German  politi- 
cal influence  means  war  and  disaster  again  and 
again.  The  humiliating  conditions  of  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest  imposed  by  the  Germans  have  left  a 
painful  scar  in  the  Rumanian  lieart. 

The  union  of  all  Rumanians  in  a  single  State 
is  an  essential  condition  for  a  democratic  and  last- 
ing world  peace.  For  centuries  they  have  been 
fighting  for  it.  The  process  of  the  union  has  al- 
ready begun.  As  a  direct  consequence  of  the 
Russian  Revolution,  Bessarabia  declared  herself 
independent  in  November,  1917,  as  a  Moldavian 
Republic;  and  in  April,  1918,  by  the  unanimous 
vote  of  an  assembly  elected  by  universal  suffrage, 
she  joined  herself  to  the  mother  country,  which  for 
all  subject  Rumanians  means  Rumania,  and  not 
Austria-Hungary.  So  the  wrong  done  in  1812 
by  Czar  Alexander  the  First  has  been  repaired. 

Bukovina  must  be  returned  to  Rumania.  Tran- 
sylvania, together  with  the  territory  that  lies  along 
its  western  border,  and  the  Banat  must  come  back 


56  Rumania  and  the  War 

to  Rumania.  Historically,  ethnographically  and 
geographically  the  right  is  on  the  Rumanian  side. 
Transylvania  never  belonged  to  Hungary  until 
1867  when,  wrongly  and  against  the  will  of  the 
great  majority  of  her  inhabitants,  she  was  annexed. 
Her  population,  even  according  to  Hungarian 
statistics,  is  Rumanian  in  majority.  There  are 
fifty-five  per  cent  of  Rumanians  in  Transylvania 
and  the  Banat,  and  forty-five  per  cent  in  the  other 
parts  of  Rumanian  Hungary.  But  Hungarian 
statistics  are  made  in  the  interest  of  Hungary. 
First  of  all,  they  say  that  the  Rumanians  in  Hun- 
gary show  an  annual  increase  of  only  five  per  thou- 
sand, while  the  Hungarians  show  ten  per  thou- 
sand. The  birth  rate  and  the  death  rate  depend 
on  specific  qualities  of  race.  In  Rumania  under 
the  same  conditions  the  annual  increase  is  fifteen 
per  thousand.  How  can  vital  statistics  be  so  dif- 
ferent in  the  near-by  territory  in  Hungary?  If 
we  make  due  allowances  for  discrepancies  of  fact 
and  also  take  into  account  the  Austrian  statistics 
for  1870,  we  may  estimate  the  Rumanian  popula- 
tion in  Hungary  probably  at  four  and  a  half  mil- 
lion. I  sat  in  a  train  in  Hungary  alongside  a  Ger- 
man and  a  Hungarian.  The  latter  thought  I  was 
a  German. 

"Vainly  we  try,  sir,"  he  said  to  me,  "to  make  an 
Hungarian  State  without  Hungarians.    You  have 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       57 

just  passed  the  River  Tisza.  Well,  till  we  reach 
the  Carpathians,  twenty-four  hours  from  now,  you 
will  hear  only  Rumanian  spoken.  There  are  five 
million  Rumanians  and  it  is  impossible  to  dena- 
tionalize them !" 

Every  man  is  called  a  Hungarian  who  in  an- 
swer to  a  question  says  ighen  (yes),  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  the  only  Hungarian  word  he 
knows.  There  are,  it  is  true,  more  than  half  a 
million  Hungarians  who  have  been  brought  into 
the  country  through  colonization  and  in  one  of- 
ficial capacity  or  another.  Most  of  these  people 
will  return  to  their  homes  in  Hungary  when  their 
terms  of  office  expire.  The  single  compact  group 
are  the  Szekelers  in  the  central  part  of  Transyl- 
vania numbering  about  four  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand.  Their  economic  life  is  strictly  bound 
up  with  that  of  the  Rumanians  surrounding  them. 
A  just  peace  must  provide  for  them  guarantees 
for  free  religious  and  cultural  development,  and 
Rumania  will  gladly  agree  to  such  terms.  Besides 
the  homogeneous  group  of  Rumanians  there  still 
will  remain  important  groups  of  them  in  the 
Ukraine,  Macedonia  and  the  Timok  Valley,  whose 
rights  we  shall  desire  to  see  respected.  We  shall 
do  the  same  for  our  foreign  minorities. 

The  Hungarians  will  fight  to  the  last  against 
giving  Transylvania  to  Rumania.  They  will  give 


58  Rumania  and  the  War 

up  Slovakia  and  Jugoslavia,  but  not  the  Rumanian 
countries.  They  will  assert  that  Transylvania  is 
the  cradle  of  the  Hungarians,  which  is  not  true, 
because  they  came  only  in  the  ninth  century  into 
Europe  from  Asia.  The  real  reason  for  their 
desire  to  maintain  control  is  that  Transylvania  is 
a  very  rich  country,  possessing  important  deposits 
of  coal,  iron,  and  gold,  of  which  the  Rumanians 
have  been  deprived.  A  Transylvanian  folk  song 
says  "Our  mountains  bear  gold;  we  are  begging 
from  door  to  door." 

Professor  Mrazek  of  the  University  of  Bucha- 
rest makes  the  following  statement: 

"A  rapid  examination  of  the  economic  situa- 
tion of  the  countries  inhabited  by  the  Rumanians 
shows  that  by  their  union  it  is  possible  to  create 
one  of  the  richest  countries  in  Europe.  One  of 
the  most  important  arteries  of  Central  Europe, 
the  Danube,  flows  for  more  than  one  thousand 
kilometers  along  its  southern  boundary.  Its  river 
valleys  present  excellent  conditions  for  the  em- 
ployment of  water  power  and  so  make  possible 
the  utilization  of  an  immense  hydraulic  energy. 
The  mineral  wealth  of  the  Carpathians  of  Tran- 
sylvania, Banat  and  Rumania  have  been  till  now 
very  little  exploited.  Great  coal  deposits,  valu- 
able properties  in  oil  and  gas,  provide  an  enor- 
mous quantity  of  mineral  energy.  Before  the 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       59 

war  started  the  total  annual  value  of  the  minerals 
was  300,000,000  francs.  Arable  lands  cover  128,- 
500  square  kilometers;  the  forests  (fir,  oak)  cover 
a  surface  of  75,983  square  kilometers.  The  vine- 
yards and  orchards,  7,700  square  kilometers,  the 
gardens  63,000  square  kilometers.  The  fisheries 
of  the  lower  Danube  are  the  richest  fresh  water 
fisheries  in  Europe  after  those  of  the  Volga.  Ac- 
cording to  our  approximate  calculation  the  value 
of  cereals  only  is  two  billions  francs  yearly. 
There  are  few  countries  in  Europe  which  present 
such  favorable  economic  conditions.  Situated  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube  and  on  the  uplands  of 
Transylvania,  the  fourteen  million  Rumanians  will 
constitute  an  economic  and  political  factor  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  Central  Europe." 

Concerning  the  Banat,  I  know  that  the  Serbs 
claim  it  in  whole  or  in  part.  But  I  think  their 
pretensions  are  exaggerated.  The  majority  of 
the  province  is  Rumanian.  There  are  two  or  three 
hundred  thousand  Serbs,  but  there  are  just  as 
many  or  more  Rumanians  in  the  Timok  Valley  in 
Macedonia,  part  of  which  should  go  to  Serbia. 
It  is  not  right  that  the  ethnographical  principle 
should  be  applied  only  to  Rumanians  and  not 
equally  to  Serbs.  The  future  Serbian  states,  in- 
cluding Serbia,  Croatia,  Slavonia,  Bosnia,  Herze- 
govina, and,  perhaps,  Montenegro,  will  be  so 


60  Rumania  and  the  War 

great  that  a  small  portion  of  the  Banat  is  not 
worth  endangering  the  friendly  relations  between 
Serbs  and  Rumanians. 

If  America  does  not  re-enter  her  isolation,  if 
she  will  help  us  with  her  capital,  her  technical 
knowledge  and  her  organized  energy,  we  shall 
quickly  become  a  strong  country,  the  surest  guar- 
antee of  democracy  against  any  kind  of  German 
aggression  in  the  center  of  Europe.  The  most 
common  slander  against  Rumania  heard  in  Amer- 
ica is  that  we  are  not  a  democratic  people.  First 
of  all,  we  are  a  peasant  people.  We  have  no 
aristocracy.  In  the  Rumanian  constitution,  any 
titles  except  that  of  Crown  Prince  are  prohibited, 
and  in  the  interest  of  the  country  we  can  sacrifice 
even  that.  The  various  Rumanians  who  call 
themselves  princes  and  counts  abroad  have  no 
right  to  bear  these  titles.  Our  constitution  is  an 
exact  copy  of  the  Belgian,  too  exact  a  copy,  per- 
haps. Our  misfortune  was  that  we  inherited  a 
group,  a  very  limited  group,  of  landlords,  of  whom 
we  could  not  rid  ourselves,  who  did  much  wrong 
to  the  country.  We  tried  to  oust  them  in  1907 
by  a  revolution,  but  at  every  sign  of  restlessness 
the  Russian  and  Austro-Hungarian  autocracies 
showed  themselves  ready  to  interfere  and  to  force 
us  to  surrender  our  independence.  Russia  and 
Austria-Hungary  were  the  moral  support  of  the 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       6 1 

landlords.  Now  that  Czardom  has  perished  and 
the  Hapsburgs  are  to  perish  with  their  phantom 
country,  Austria-Hungary,  the  landlords  will  have 
no  power.  They  have  been  apprehensive  for  some 
time,  and  in  1917  they  passed  two  bills,  one  for 
universal  suffrage,  and  the  other  a  new  agrarian 
measure  which  gave  to  the  peasants  two  million 
hectares  of  land.  The  Bessarabians  and  the 
Transylvanians  are  also  peasant  people  who  will 
increase  the  forces  of  democracy.  The  Rumanian 
peasants  are  vivid,  intelligent,  active  and  diligent. 
The  German,  Meyer  Luebka,  says  in  his  encyclo- 
pedia that  the  Rumanians  have  remarkable  tech- 
nical ability.  An  English  physician  who  was  in 
Rumania  during  the  war  says:  "The  Rumanian 
peasant  belongs  to  a  gentle  and  refined  race.  He 
is  intelligent  and  possesses  qualities  of  heart  which 
you  would  not  suspect.  If  the  present  moral  and 
intellectual  welfare  are  cultivated  as  well  as  the 
material  conditions,  I  am  sure  that  he  will  pro- 
duce a  race  so  elevated  as  to  contrast  strangely 
with  other  people  who  surround  him." 

A  strong  Rumanian  democratic  state  will  have 
a  strong  community  of  interest  with  the  Serbs, 
Poles  and  Czechs.  These  three  countries  should 
be  sufficient  to  form  with  us  a  barrier  against  any 
aggressive  power.  But  when  time  has  elapsed, 
when  the  miseries  of  war  are  forgotten,  the  wrongs 


62  Rumania  and  the  War 

of  the  past  repaired,  and  the  selfishness  of  various 
peoples  diminished,  it  may  be  possible  that  even 
the  Bulgarian  and  Hungarian  peoples  can  be  in- 
cluded in  this  alliance.  We  must  not  forget  that 
their  feelings  and  their  loyalty  were  corrupted  by 
their  rulers  and  their  aristocracies. 

And  so  with  the  Russians.  With  the  Ukraine 
Republic,  it  is  to  our  interest  to  be  on  the  most 
friendly  terms.  One  of  the  most  important  re- 
sults of  this  war  ought  to  be  the  disappearance 
of  the  old  diplomacy  and  of  all  the  autocratic  dy- 
nasties. The  Russian  Revolution  has  committed 
many  sins.  In  a  cataclysm  which  destroys  in  one 
year  a  dynasty  of  one  thousand  years,  you  cannot 
expect  perfect  order.  The  Revolution  is  none 
the  less  responsible  for  having  delivered  the  world 
from  the  darkest  and  most  insidious  of  autocra- 
cies. The  despotism  which  has  existed  in  Russia 
has  perished  and  the  strong  push  of  the  Russians 
towards  Constantinople  is  also  a  thing  of  the  past. 
This  city  must  be  a  neutral  city  with  an  interna- 
tional administration  in  which  America  will  play 
a  large  role,  directing  our  first  steps  towards  a 
new,  large  and  productive  life. 

The  essential  condition  for  a  lasting  peace  is 
the  creation  in  Central  Europe  of  strong  new 
states  on  national  bases.  These  states,  through 
their  representatives,  on  October  26,  1918,  en- 


Some  Facts  of  History  and  Geography       63 

tered  into  agreement  in  historic  Independence 
Hall  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  this  country. 
The  oppression  of  centuries  and  the  stifling  of  na- 
tional aspirations  will  soon  be  a  nightmare  of 
the  past  for  all  the  small  states  of  Central  Europe. 
They  can  develop  their  own  individuality  without 
the  restraining  tyranny  of  Hapsburg  and  Hohen- 
zollern  overlords.  They  can  bridge  the  distance 
to  the  proud  centuries  when  they  helped  to  make 
history.  In  the  past,  even  under  unhappy  condi- 
tions, they  offered  the  world  the  full  blown  flow- 
ers of  a  rich  and  freely  developed  culture  in  lit- 
erature, art  and  music.  How  much  more  may 
they  not  give  the  world  in  the  future !  Their  fed- 
eration will  make  the  strongest  fortress  against 
German  invasion.  They  will  take  the  place  of 
Austria-Hungary,  which  must  disappear  from  the 
European  map. 


WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  RUMANIA 

POSSIBLY  a  better  title  for  this  chapter  would 
be  the  work  of  the  Rumanian  women;  be- 
cause Rumanian  women  are  to  be  found  not  only 
in  the  kingdom  of  Rumania,  but  also  in  vast  re- 
gions all  around  Rumania,  in  Transylvania,  in 
Bessarabia,  in  Bukovina  and  the  Banat,  in  the 
Macedonian  mountains,  and  also  in  the  Western 
part  of  the  Ukrainian  Republic.  I  must,  however, 
ask  you  not  to  fear  that  my  remarks  will  be  made 
longer  on  account  of  this  fact.  The  Rumanian 
nation  in  all  the  manifestations  of  its  life  has  this 
characteristic,  that,  although  it  has  suffered  many 
vicissitudes  and  has  been  subject  to  much  oppres- 
sion from  foreign  powers,  it  has  kept  in  general 
lines  the  same  language  and  the  same  customs. 
Therefore,  to  speak  of  the  women  of  the  kingdom 
of  Rumania  means  to  speak  of  all  the  Rumanian 
women  of  all  countries  inhabited  by  Rumanians. 
In  all  times  and  with  all  peoples  the  women 
have  had  their  part  in  martyrdom.  Professor 
Graham  Wallace,  in  "The  Great  Society,"  quotes 
from  the  Medea  of  Euripides:  "Of  all  beings 

64 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  65 

born  to  life  and  intelligence,  women  are  the  most 
unhappy."  This  psychological  fact,  profoundly 
true  even  with  happy  nations,  has  a  deeper  mean- 
ing in  the  case  of  oppressed  peoples.  In  their 
case  the  martyrdom  is  intensified,  and  as  in  all 
other  similar  cases,  it  produces  heroic  characters, 
— whether  the  heroes  and  heroines  bear  famous 
names  or  remain  unknown  among  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  who  daily  work  and  suffer. 

Let  us  see  now  what  is  the  special  character, 
the  physiognomy,  and  the  leading  interests  and 
occupations  of  the  Rumanian  woman. 

Let  us  go  together  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  to  a 
Rumanian  village.  On  open  ground  under  the 
shade  of  an  old  oak,  to  the  accompaniment  of  a 
violin  and  a  "cobza"  (a  kind  of  guitar),  the 
weekly  dance  of  the  village  takes  place.  There 
you  can  see  all  the  lads  and  all  the  lasses  of  the 
village,  and  maybe  some  from  the  surrounding 
country.  They  are  dancing  the  Rumanian  na- 
tional dance,  "the  hora,"  which  the  Rumanian 
bard  Cosbuc  describes  as  follows : 

To  the  left,  three  stately  paces, 
To  the  right,  three  paces  more; 
Hand  in  hand  then,  deftly,  laces, 
Hands,  their  freedom  then,  restore. 
Proud  as  charger  paws  the  ground 
Beating  feet  make  earth  resound 
Steadily  and  slow. 


66  Rumania  and  the  War 

I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  my  friend  Mr. 
Grimshaw,  of  the  London  School  of  Economics, 
for  the  translation  of  this  and  other  poems  which 
I  shall  quote. 

We  can  quietly  watch  the  girls  dancing  with 
the  children  playing  around  them,  and  the  women 
holding  the  babies  in  their  arms  and  looking  on. 
The  girls  are  of  medium  height,  some  of  them 
tall  with  slender  waists;  most  of  them  of  dark 
complexion  with  large  dark  or  hazel  eyes, 
although  you  can  see  also  some  fair  girls  with 
luxuriant  light  hair  falling  over  their  shoulders^ 
plaited  and  tied  with  a  knot  of  ribbon,  and  with 
blue  eyes  like  the  clear  sky  over  their  heads. 
Their  demeanor  is  shy  and  modest;  from  time  to 
time  a  lad  gets  hold  of  a  handkerchief  which,  if 
given  voluntarily,  means  accepted  love;  that  is 
why  the  girl  protests  and  wants  it  back.  Their 
dress,  as  is  usual  with  the  eternal  feminine,  fol- 
lows the  rules  of  aesthetics  and  varies  with  the 
region.  In  the  mountain  districts  we  find  the  real 
national  costume,  which  is  very  picturesque,  com- 
posed of  an  embroidered  blouse  of  various  pat- 
terns and  colors,  and  a  skirt  composed  of  two 
pieces  like  two  aprons  of  black  woollen  cloth,  one 
in  front,  the  other  behind,  tightly  moulded  to  the 
figure  like  the  drapery  of  an  antique  statue. 
Around  the  waist  is  an  embroidered  woollen  belt. 


A  RUMANIAN  PEASANT  GIRL  IN  NATIONAL  COSTUME 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  67 

What  is  interesting  in  the  study  of  this  dress  is 
that  the  wearer  makes  it  all  herself.  She  weaves 
the  fine  cloth  of  cotton  yarn,  spun  specially  for  her 
in  the  Lancashire  mills.  When  the  roll  of  cloth 
is  finished,  balancing  it  on  her  head  as  the  women 
of  antiquity  did  their  amphorae,  she  carries  it  to 
the  spring  in  the  meadow,  where,  after  washing 
it  several  times  and  drying  it  on  the  grass,  she 
makes  it  as  white  as  snow.  She  also  washes  the 
wool,  and  then  cards  it  in  readiness  for  her  distaff, 
which  she  calls  her  "furca."  The  "furca"  and 
the  "fusul,"  or  bobbin,  are  her  companions  while 
she  is  waiting  for  the  cloth  to  dry.  How  many 
times,  on  the  uplands  in  the  mountains  under  the 
cool  shadow  of  the  fir  trees  and  to  the  babbling 
murmur  of  the  spring  mountain  waters,  have  I 
seen  this  poetic  picture  of  Rumanian  life ! 

The  Rumanian  peasant-woman  so  tastefully  de- 
signs her  blouse  and  skirt  and  embroiders  them 
with  patterns  so  charming  and  so  harmoniously 
arranged  and  with  such  fine  shades  of  color,  that 
during  recent  years  the  refined  Rumanian  aris- 
tocracy Fas  introduced  the  national  blouse  as 
fashionable  attire  in  society.  The  Rumanian 
Women's  Association  of  Bucharest  has  organ- 
ized this  home  industry  and  in  various  shops  they 
sell  the  refined  product  of  the  peasant  women's 
clever  hands.  Until  quite  recently  Liberty's  was 


68  Rumania  and  the  War 

selling  this  kind  of  blouse.  I  do  not  know 
whether  its  origin  was  clearly  known,  because  very 
often  goods  exported  from  Rumania  arrived  in 
England  under  the  name  of  Austro-Hungarian  or 
Bulgarian  goods.  Madame  Maria  Cozma,  a 
patriotic  Rumanian  lady  from  Transylvania,  the 
mother-in-law  of  our  great  poet  Goga,  and 
Madam  Elise  Bratano,  have  collected  in  artistic 
albums  a  good  many  of  these  patterns,  which  are 
the  native  and  wonderful  product  of  the  artistic 
genius  of  the  Rumanian  race.  This  work  has 
been  continually  embellished  and  improved  by  the 
Rumanian  women  from  generation  to  generation 
in  the  course  of  long  centuries  of  work  and  suf- 
fering. This  artistic  work  was  the  only  means  of 
alleviating  their  anxieties  and  of  elevating  their 
souls. 

The  Rumanian  Minister  of  Commerce  and  In- 
dustry has  also  accumulated  lately  a  rich  collec- 
tion of  Rumanian  patterns  and  embroideries,  and 
has  organized  an  annual  exhibition  of  this  art. 

On  the  plains,  where  the  women  have  less  spare 
time  because  they  work  harder,  their  physique 
and  their  customs  are  somewhat  different.  The 
complexion  is  less  pure  and  is  more  sunburned. 
The  waist  is  less  slender,  the  figure  altogether 
more  sturdy.  But  their  eyes,  which  are  the  mir- 
ror of  the  soul,  are  soft,  loyal  and  clear;  their 


WITH  THE  RUMANIAN  ARMY — A  CAVALRY  PATROL  ON  THE  ICE  FIELDS 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  69 

eyes  are  large,  humid,  glinting,  their  dress, 
although  maintaining  the  national  design,  is 
spoiled  by  garments  made  of  materials  of  foreign 
industry  which  lack  the  charm  and  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  the  Rumanian  peasant  dress. 

When  the  sun  begins  to  set,  the  gay  crowd  goes 
back  home,  and  there  immediately  begins  the 
working  week  for  the  girl.  What  does  she  not 
do?  She  helps  her  mother  with  the  cooking,  in 
making  the  bread  and  polenta,  in  milking  the  cows, 
if  they  have  any,  in  looking  after  the  poultry,  in 
bringing  up  and  taking  care  of  her  younger 
brothers  and  sisters,  in  keeping  their  home  clean 
and  nice.  She  breeds  silk  worms,  she  makes  the 
silk  threads  and  weaves  the  silk  cloth;  she  makes 
butter  and  various  kinds  of  cheese,  she  cuts  and 
sews  the  clothes  for  the  family;  in  short,  she 
knows  and  practises  the  multiple  arts  of  home 
life.  A  girl  of  16  or  18,  even  though  some- 
times she  does  not  know  how  to  read  and  write, 
is  a  living  encyclopedia  in  all  these  arts.  At  this 
age  the  girls  usually  get  married.  Among  the 
poorer  classes,  who  form  of  course  the  majority, 
the  marriage  usually  is  a  marriage  of  inclination, 
and  the  girls,  who  are  prettier,  more  intelligent, 
more  diligent  and  more  domesticated,  naturally 
have  more  opportunities  in  this  respect.  One 
fact  is  certain,  that  with  very  few  exceptions  they 


70  Rumania  and  the  War 

all  marry.  It  is  possible  that  this  state  of  things 
is  brought  about  because  in  Rumania  the  number 
of  women  is  approximately  equal  to  that  of  .men, 
and  in  Moldavia  and  Bessarabia,  there  are  even 
more  men  than  women.  Once  married,  the  girl, 
possessing  these  qualities  which  I  have  just 
enumerated,  becomes  a  good  housewife;  to  quote 
an  old  northern-English  popular  song:  "She  loves 
her  husband  and  she  keeps  her  house  clean."  In 
the  family  she  plays  an  important  part,  sometimes 
even  greater  than  that  of  her  husband.  This,  I 
am  given  to  understand,  is  by  no  means  unknown 
in  other  lands.  It  is  crystallized  in  the  Rumanian 
folk  saying:  "Where  are  you  from?"  "Where 
my  wife  is  from."  The  number  of  children  gives 
the  measure  of  the  honour  of  the  family.  A 
Rumanian  proverb  says:  "The  multitude  of  chil- 
dren is  the  happiness  of  the  Rumanian."  A  mar- 
ried woman  considers  herself  unhappy  and  god- 
forsaken if  she  is  childless.  She  employs  all 
sorts  of  means  in  order  to  have  children.  She 
drinks  orchid  infusions,  she  eats  rabbits  because 
rabbits  are  prolific,  she  wears  round  her  waist  a 
silk  belt  which  has  been  kept  for  12  days  on 
the  church  altar,  and  as  a  last  expedient,  she  has 
recourse  to  the  wizards  and  witches.  However, 
she  need  not  have  recourse  to  such  extreme  means 
very  often,  because  the  strength  of  the  Rumanian 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  71 

race  lies,  in  part,  in  its  high  birth-rate.  Whilst 
the  average  birth-rate  throughout  the  world  is 
30  per  thousand  inhabitants  yearly,  in  Rumania 
it  is  43  per  thousand.  This  helps  to  explain  why 
the  Rumanian  race  has  resisted  through  the  cen- 
turies the  most  terrible  calamities  of  very  varied 
character.  The  fact  is  embodied  in  the  Rumanian 
proverb:  "Romanul  nu  piere" — "The  Rumanian 
never  dies."  It  is  not  only  for  this  reason  that 
the  Rumanian  woman  plays  such  an  important 
role,  but  also  for  her  moral  qualities  of  which  I 
will  speak  later  on. 

The  Rumanian  woman  is  a  good  mother.  She 
loves  and  takes  care  of  her  children,  no  matter 
how  many  she  has,  with  an  equal  solicitude.  Her 
care  is  that  they  may  be  clean,  intelligent  ancj 
pretty.  Beauty  is  a  factor  dear  to  the  Rumanian 
people,  who  have  natural  artistic  inclinations.  To 
illustrate  this,  I  am  going  to  give  you  some  of 
the  lullabies  of  the  Rumanian  folk-lore.  This  is 
one  for  girls : 

Nani,   Nani,   Little  Girl, 

Mother's  darling  flower! 

She  will  rock  you  in  your  cradle, 
Wash  you  in  the  fresh  spring  water, 
Make  you  lovely  as  the  sunshine. 

Nani,  Nani,  little  Love! 

Grow  you  like  a  flower! 


72  Rumania  and  the  War 

Tall  and  slender  as  the  rushes, 
White  as  is  the  mountain  daisy, 
Soft  as  breast  of  turtle-dove, 
Lovely  as  a  Star! 

And  here  is  one  for  boys : 

Nani,  Nani,  Chick  of  mine! 
Heaven  make  you  happy! 

Make  you  witching-eyed  and  handsome 

Like  the  shining  sun; 

Then  may  pretty  girls  adore  you, 

Flowers  strew  your  way. 

With  all  this,  however,  the  life  of  the  Rumanian 
peasant  woman  is  a  long  martyrdom;  besides  do- 
ing all  the  housekeeping  she  has  to  nurse  and 
bring  up  her  children  (feeding  the  babies  with  the 
bottle  is  an  unknown  process  among  the  Rumanian 
peasant  women  and  is  very  little  used  even  in 
the  middle  classes).  The  following  song  illus- 
trates this  better: 

Comes  a  little  child  to  her; 
As  she  works  she  rears  him; 
With  her  foot  she  rocks  his  cradle, 
Twisting  still  with  busy  fingers 
Hemp-yarn  from  the  ever-laden 
Distaff,  at  her  waist;  to  her  bosom 
Close  she  holds  him,  as  her  free  arm 
Lays  and  lights  the  household  fire. 

As  if  all  these  duties  were  not  enough,  she 
also  helps  her  husband  with  his  work  in  the  fields. 


TWO  RUMANIAN  PEASANT  BEAUTIES 


Woman* s  Work  in  Rumania  73 

She  is  the  first  to  get  up  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  light  the  fire,  and  cook  the  meals  for 
the  whole  day,  which  she  takes  to  her  husband  in 
the  fields,  where  she  remains  all  day  helping  him 
to  till  the  soil,  to  sow,  to  reap,  to  dig  and  plough. 
I  do  not  know  any  woman  who  works  more  than 
the  Rumanian  peasant  woman. 

As  I  write  these  words,  the  men  of  Rumania 
are  completing  their  second  year  in  the  war,  where 
a  great  many  of  them  have  died  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  great  and  high  ideal,  the  reunion 
of  all  Rumanians;  and  the  women's  share  of  the 
work  has  been  greatly  increased.  I  shall  always 
keep  in  mind  the  picture  of  the  peasant  woman 
holding  her  baby  to  her  bosom  with  one  arm,  and 
with  the  other  handling  the  shafts  of  the  plough. 
She  has  all  the  charge  of  the  family  in  the  absence 
of  her  husband,  at  the  front  or  fallen  in  the  war. 

The  Rumanian  woman  is  hospitable  and  good- 
hearted.  She  will  share  everything  with  others 
with  a  real  pleasure,  and  she  feels  great  satisfac- 
tion when  she  can  do  some  good.  Mrs.  Lucy 
Garnett  in  her  travels  through  Macedonia,  de- 
scribed in  her  book  "The  Women  of  Turkey," 
was  received  so  well  and  with  so  much  sympathy 
by  the  Rumanians  living  in  those  parts,  that  she 
says  that  the  principal  characteristic  of  the  Ru- 
manians is  their  hospitality,  which  contrasts  strik- 


74  Rumania  and  the  War 

ingly  with  the  lack  of  hospitality  shown  by  the 
other  races  living  in  Macedonia. 

The  Rumanian  woman  has  an  inborn  vivid  in- 
telligence. She  is  quick  to  learn  and  understand. 
I  remember  the  surprise  of  some  English  friends 
of  mine,  who  were  living  in  Rumania,  when  they 
saw  that  their  servant,  a  Rumanian  girl  who  could 
not  read  or  write,  in  a  few  months'  time  knew 
English  so  well  that  she  could  converse  fluently  in 
that  language. 

Owing  to  excessive  work,  to  many  cares,  many 
children  and  worries,  and  perhaps  also  owing  to 
bad  social  and  hygienic  conditions,  the  Rumanian 
peasant  woman  usually  ages  quickly.  It  is  pain- 
ful to  see  how  rapidly  the  features  of  a  splendid 
girl  alter,  for  within  ten  or  fifteen  years  after 
marriage  she  is  likely  to  have  the  appearance  of 
an  old  woman.  I  am  convinced  that  this  is  not 
in  the  character  of  the  race  but  is  only  due  to 
certain  conditions  which  could  be  changed. 

The  Rumanian  woman  is  imbued  with  a  high 
patriotic  feeling.  It  could  be  said  that  her  love 
of  her  nation,  her  national  language,  traditions, 
and  customs,  has  insured  the  existence  of  the  Ru- 
manian race.  During  the  period  of  the  barbarian 
invasions  and  also  in  more  recent  times  when,  ow- 
ing to  the  international  injustice  still  ruling  the 
world,  the  Rumanian  race  has  been  divided  and 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  75 

subject  to  various  persecutions  in  Russia,  Hun- 
gary, Austria,  and  Macedonia,  it  has  been  espe- 
cially the  woman  who  has  contributed  to  keep 
intact  the  characteristics  of  the  race.  She  never 
marries  a  foreigner,  or  if  sometimes  this  does 
happen,  she  succeeds  through  her  charms  and  her 
attraction  in  nationalizing  her  husband,  and  her 
children  are  certain  to  follow  the  nationality  and 
creed  of  the  mother.  This  phenomenon  is  well 
known  and  the  nationalities  concerned  are  much 
afraid  of  it.  The  Hungarians  in  their  mad  idea 
of  forming  a  Hungarian  State  of  twenty  million 
Hungarians,  although  there  are  only  six  million 
real  Hungarians,  speaking  an  impossible  Asiatic 
language,  and  unable  to  assimilate  European  peo- 
ples within  their  pseudo-civilization,  have  estab- 
lished kindergartens  for  Rumanian  children  at 
the  age  of  three,  taking  the  children  by  force 
from  the  arms  of  their  mothers  in  order  to  teach 
them  the  language  of  Arpad.  Vain  efforts! 

When  the  long  awaited  Rumanian  army  entered 
into  Transylvania,  the  Rumanian  women  and 
girls  whose  husbands  and  brothers  were  fighting 
on  the  side  of  Austria-Hungary  for  a  cause  which 
was  not  theirs,  met  them  with  enthusiasm,  and 
showed  them  the  best  roads  and  the  unknown 
pathways  by  which  they  could  the  more  easily  go 
forward.  When  Fate  compelled  them  to  retire, 


76  Rumania  and  the  War 

many  of  these  feminine  mentors  paid  with  their 
lives  for  their  brave  acts  of  patriotism.  More 
than  14,000  Rumanians,  including  men  and 
women,  were  condemned  to  death  or  to  prison 
by  the  Hungarian  military  courts,  for  their  patri- 
otic sentiments. 

The  great  Rumanian  patriot  and  writer,  Bal- 
cesco,  who  died  in  exile  at  Palermo,  says:  "When 
the  Rumanians  revolted  against  the  Hungarians 
in  Transylvania  in  1848,  the  Rumanian  women 
were  not  behind  the  men  either  in  courage  or  in 
national  feeling;  they  shared  with  their  husbands 
all  the  dangers.  From  the  peaks  of  the  moun- 
tains they  threw  a  torrent  of  stones  which  de- 
stroyed the  lines  of  their  enemies.  Their  songs 
were  no  longer  songs  of  longing  and  of  glee,  but 
songs  full  of  patriotism  and  national  sentiment. 
I  heard  in  the  ruins  of  the  Abrud — a  town  laid 
waste  by  fire  in  a  tragic  night  of  May,  1849 — a 
young  and  beautiful  mountain  girl  singing  a  sweet 
and  melancholy  song.  But  the  song  was  about  a 
happy  young  Rumanian  girl  by  the  name  of 
Florea,  who  was  happy  to  be  a  Rumanian  of  Latin 
origin,  happy  not  to  know  and  never  to  have 
spoken  Hungarian,  loving  only  all  that  is  Ru- 
manian, and  swearing  never  to  love  a  Hungarian 
so  long  as  one  Rumanian  was  left  in  the  world. 
This  song,  full  of  sentiment,  that  rosy  and  beau- 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  77 

tiful  virgin,  the  burnt  dark  ruins  of  the  Abrud, 
which  were  around  me,  the  tombs  of  the  Hun- 
garians which  I  could  see  near  by,  all  these  made 
a  powerful  impression  upon  me.  It  seemed  as 
if  I  was  having  a  vision.  I  thought  I  could  see 
the  genius  of  Rumanian  nationality  hovering  over 
the  tombs  of  their  enemies  and  singing  a  resur- 
rection song." 

In  the  history  of  the  Rumanian  principalities, 
the  wives  of  the  ruling  princes  and  the  wives  of 
the  state  dignitaries  were  renowned  for  their 
piety,  courage,  dignity  and  patriotism.  On  the 
walls  of  the  most  beautiful  piece  of  ecclesiastical 
architecture  in  the  Near  East,  the  cloister  of 
Curtea  de  Argesh,  one  may  see  the  picture  of  the 
Prince  Neagoe  Bessarab  and  his  wife  Despina 
offering  to  God  and  to  the  Rumanian  people  the 
church  built  by  them.  But  outstanding  among  all 
the  heroines  of  the  past  is  the  mother  of  Stephen 
the  Great,  Prince  of  Moldavia — at  that  time  a 
country  three  times  as  great  as  at  present.  In 
the  47  years  of  his  long  reign  he  carried  on  with 
success  as  many  wars  against  his  neighbours, 
Hungarians,  Poles,  Tartars,  Russians  and  Turks. 
His  brilliant  and  repeated  successes  against  the 
Turks,  then  the  invaders  of  Europe  who  were 
threatening  even  Rome,  brought  him  the  title  of 
uThe  Hero  of  Christendom,"  given  to  him  by 


78  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  Pope,  Sixtus  IV.  After  each  war  in  which 
he  was  victorious  he  built  a  beautiful  church. 
These  churches  still  exist  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  have  been  used  as  places  of  worship 
up  to  the  present  time.  Thus  he  built  47 
churches.  In  the  inspiration  of  his  mother  he 
found  his  highest  moral  stimulus.  This  is  what 
a  popular  legend  says  about  this  heroine : 

"In  this  old  fortress  built  on  the  side  of  a 
mountain,  the  Mother  of  the  Prince  keeps  watch 
as  a  sentinel  of  honor.  Voichitza,  the  young  wife 
of  the  Prince,  is  also  there,  sweet  and  suave,  as 
a  white  carnation,  sighing  for  her  glorious  and 
much-loved  lord,  who  returns  not  from  the  com- 
bat. The  Princess,  her  mother-in-law,  consoles 
and  cheers  her.  The  clock  has  just  struck  mid- 
night, when  Voichitza  hears  the  fanfare  of  the 
trumpet  and  the  knocking  at  the  gate.  She  knows 
it  is  her  husband,  and  her  heart  goes  out  to  him. 
Both  the  princesses  rise  quickly,  and  soon  the 
voice  of  him  whom  they  love  cries  from  the  dark- 
ness: 'It  is  I,  thy  son,  dear  mother.  I  thy  son! 
I  am  wounded  in  battle,  the  struggle  has  been  too 
strong  for  us,  and  my  little  army  is  devastated. 
Open  the  gates,  for  the  Turks  are  surrounding 
us,  the  wind  is  piercing,  and  my  wounds  are  pain- 
ful.' Voitchitza  rushes  to  the  window,  but  her 
mother-in-law  holds  her  back,  and  bidding  her 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  79 

remain  where  she  is,  descends  the  stairs,  orders 
the  castle  gates  to  be  opened,  and  appears  before 
her  son,  tall,  majestic,  severe — the  absolute  per- 
sonification of  dignity  and  grandeur.  'What  do 
you  say,  stranger?  My  Stephen  is  far  away! 
His  arm  is  sowing  death  and  annihilation.  I  am 
his  mother  and  he  is  my  son !  If  you  are  really 
Stephen,  I  am  not  your  mother.  If  heaven  does 
not  wish  to  make  my  last  days  sorrowful,  and  if 
you  are  really  Stephen,  you  will  not  enter  here, 
vanquished,  against  my  will.  Fly  to  the  battle- 
field! Die  for  your  country!  Your  tomb  shall 
be  strewn  with  flowers!'  And  closing  the  door, 
she  remounts  the  stairs ;  and  calm  and  serene,  she 
consoles  and  wipes  away  the  tears  of  the  young 
Princess  Voichitza." 

The  dignified  descendants  of  those  women  of 
the  past  are  also  in  the  present  times  keeping  high 
their  inheritance  and  their  fruitful  mission. 
Whilst  the  peasant  woman,  as  I  have  said,  by 
her  daily  toil  provides  the  army  and  the  people 
with  the  necessary  food,  clothing  and  things  of 
first  necessity,  her  sisters  of  the  higher  classes  are 
lending  all  their  efforts  to  the  army  and  the  coun- 
try. Organized  in  charity  societies  or  individu- 
ally, they  tend  the  wounded  in  hospitals,  and  in 
the  hospital-trains  leading  from  the  firing  line; 
they  have  organized  canteens  in  railway  stations, 


8o  Rumania  and  the  War 

in  villages  and  towns  where  they  distribute  re- 
freshments to  the  soldiers  and  encourage  them 
with  the  smile  or  the  kind  word  which  contributes 
so  much  to  uplift  and  maintain  the  morale  so 
necessary  in  such  trying  times.  Amongst  them 
are  a  few  hundred  Rumanian  woman-doctors  who 
are  giving  enormous  help  to  hospitals. 

In  the  literary  realm  there  are  many  women 
who  have  lifted  high  the  renown  of  Rumanian 
literature,  both  in  Rumania  and  abroad.  In  the 
past  generation  we  have  had  two  great  names  in 
Rumanian  literature :  Matilda  Poni  and  Veronica 
Micle,  the  latter  being  contemporary  with  and 
a  good  friend  of  the  greatest  of  the  Rumanian 
poets,  Eminesco.  From  this  generation  I  must 
mention  Mile.  Vacaresco,  who  writes  equally  well 
in  Rumanian  and  French.  Mile.  Vacaresco  is 
faithfully  continuing  the  traditions  of  her  ances- 
tor Enachitza  Vacaresco,  who  lived  in  the  i8th 
century,  and  whose  last  will  and  testament  read 
as  follows: 

"To  my  descendants  the  Vacaresco  I  leave  this  inherit- 
ance: To  preserve  the  Rumanian  language,  and  the  love 
of  their  Fatherland." 

In  the  foreground  of  Rumanian  womanhood  there 
stands  clearly  detached  our  gracious  and  charm- 
ing Queen  Marie,  the  most  precious  gift  the  Brit- 


ECATERINA  THEODOROIU — THE   JEANNE   D  ARC   OF  RUMANIA,  WHO, 

AFTER  HEROIC  DEEDS,  FELL  AT  THE  HEAD  OF  HER  BATTALION 

IN    THE    BATTLE    OF    MARASESTI 


Woman's  Work  in  Rumania  8 1 

ish  people  have  ever  made  to  their  Rumanian  ally. 
Beautiful  like  a  fairy,  she  is  not  content  only  with 
her  literary  work  in  which  she,  a  dignified  fol- 
lower of  Carmen  Sylva,  excels;  but  being  of  an 
active  and  daring  temperament,  she  expresses  in 
deeds  her  charitable  sentiments,  I  shall  never 
forget  how  in  1913,  during  the  Rumanian  cam- 
paign in  Bulgaria,  when  I  was  the  chief  physician 
of  a  hospital  for  cholera  of  3,000  beds  in  barracks 
at  Zimnicen,  Queen  Marie  was  the  first  to  enter 
fearlessly  the  barracks  of  my  patients  to  give  them 
assistance  and  encourage  them,  and  she  never  for- 
got to  leave  flowers  behind  when  she  left.  In 
the  present  war  she  has  not  only  seen  and  spoken 
individually  with  the  wounded,  but  she  has  been 
to  her. whole  people  an  example  of  courage  and  of 
moral  elevation,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  terrible 
circumstances  through  which  a  nation  has  ever 
passed. 

When  we  think  that  two-thirds  of  the  country 
is  still  occupied  by  the  most  cruel  and  barbarous 
enemies ;  that  those  in  the  occupied  territory  know 
nothing  about  their  people  gone  to  the  war,  of 
whom  many  will  never  come  back;  that  owing  to 
deadly  epidemics  of  typhoid  and  to  hunger  (for 
many  months  all  days  have  been  meatless  days  for 
poor  and  rich  alike),  and  to  the  difficult  condi- 
tions of  the  retreat,  nearly  one  million  of  the 


82  Rumania  and  the  War 

seven  million  inhabitants  of  Rumania  have  died 
(I  know  villages  in  which  there  is  not  a  single  in- 
habitant left,  not  even  a  child)  ;  that  our  great 
eastern  ally  betrayed  us  from  the  beginning,  look- 
ing on  without  concern  from  20  miles  behind  the 
firing  line,  and  that  quite  recently,  after  a  second 
betrayal,  they  declared  war  on  us;  only  then  can 
one  understand  the  anxieties  through  which  our 
people  is  passing  at  present.  There  is  no  escape 
anywhere.  Serbia  had  at  least  one  way  of  retreat 
open  to  the  Adriatic.  Through  this  opening  she 
was  able  to  send  her  soldiers  to  fight  side  by  side 
with  the  real  Western  Allies,  and  their  children 
to  France  and  Italy  and  England  to  be  taken  care 
of.  Rumania  had  no  such  opportunity!  She  is 
trapped,  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  helping  her 
in  any  way.  But  the  Rumanian  says :  "Go d  is  all- 
powerful!" 

Believing  in  the  inherent  justice  of  things  and 
in  the  true  God,  who  is  not  the  God  of  war  in- 
voked by  the  Kaiser  as  his  ally,  but  the  God  of 
goodness  and  justice,  let  us  hope  that  the  day 
will  come  which  will  bring  to  the  Rumanian  peo- 
ple united  together,  happier  times  and  a  better 
reward  for  their  labors  and  sufferings. 


PEASANT  CO-OPERATION  IN  RUMANIA 

HP  HE  American  labourer  knows  little  about  the 
•*•  Rumanian  peasant;  and  generally  speaking, 
American  opinion  is  badly  informed  about  Ru- 
mania. The  reasons  are  various  and  I  will  not 
insist  upon  them.  Certainly,  those  who  have  suf- 
fered most  from  this  state  of  things  are  the  Ru- 
manians themselves,  because  not  only  have  they 
remained  unknown  to  the  great  American  nation, 
but  what  is  worse,  other  interested  peoples  have 
slandered  them,  have  put  them  in  a  bad  light,  have 
misinterpreted  their  acts  both  before  and  since 
Rumania's  entry  into  the  war.  In  certain  circles 
of  America  the  Rumanian  people  arouse  almost 
no  interest  at  all. 

Nevertheless,  on  account  of  certain  native  qual- 
ities, of  intelligence,  skill,  liveliness,  industry  and 
because  of  his  many  sufferings,  the  Rumanian 
peasant  from  the  Danube  and  from  the  Car- 
pathians merits  the  full  sympathy  and  attention 
of  the  American  nation. 

Among  other  remarkable  achievements  exclu- 
sively the  work  of  this  peasant  is  the  creation  of 

83 


84  Rumania  and  the  War 

the   Popular  Banks   and  Agrarian   Co-operative 
Societies  in  Rumania. 

No  more  than  twenty  years  ago  the  Rumanian 
peasant  was  suffering  painfully  from  lack  of  credit. 
In  order  to  satisfy  his  various  wants  and  pay  the 
expenditures  for  installation,  for  his  family,  for 
taxes,  etc.,  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  money  from 
the  landowner  by  mortgaging  his  work  for  the 
next  summer  or  summers,  and  in  order  to  repay 
he  was  obliged  to  sell  his  labour  in  winter  for 
practically  nothing.  For  instance,  while  for 
ploughing  an  acre  the  peasant  received  in  spring 
or  autumn  8  francs,  if  he  was  paid  before  and  dur- 
ing the  winter  he  received  only  2  francs ;  for  har- 
vesting an  acre,  instead  of  16  francs,  the  summer 
price,  he  received  4  francs!  The  peasant,  being 
pressed  by  want  and  not  being  able  to  find  credit 
anywhere,  was  forced  to  submit  to  the  iron 
law  of  the  landowners.  When  he  tried  to 
escape  from  their  grip  and  sought  money  from 
the  cereal  merchant,  the  buyer  of  his  crop, 
he  fell  from  the  frying  pan  into  the  fire. 
This  man  in  his  turn  paid  ridiculoulsy  low 
prices  in  advance  for  the  crop — scarcely  a 
third  of  the  market  value  of  the  products.  For 
instance,  20  or  30  francs  were  regularly  paid  for 
a  half-ton  of  corn,  the  summer  price  of  which 
would  be  from  80  to  100  francs.  In  this  manner 


Peasant  Co-operation  in  Rumania         85 

the  peasant  was  always  between  the  devil  and  the 
deep  sea.  These  circumstances  became  intoler- 
able and  the  peasant  saw  that  there  was  no  escape 
except  by  his  own  efforts.  Helped  by  the  teachers 
and  priests  of  the  villages,  he  laid  the  first  foun- 
dation of  the  Popular  Banks. 

Only  two  Banks  were  founded  in  the  first  year 
in  the  districts  of  Gorj  and  Prahova,  but  three 
years  afterwards,  in  1900,  their  number  was  47 
and  their  subsequent  development  is  shown  in  the 
following  table : 

Year  Number  of  Banks             Capital 

1906  2,000         Francs     20,000,000 

1911  3,000                     100,000,000 

1916  4,000                    300,000,000 

Perhaps  the  best  example  is  the  Bank  "Gilor- 
tul,"  in  the  village  Novaci  (Gorj  District). 
Founded  in  1901  with  70  members  and  3,000 
francs  capital,  it  reached  in  1915  a  membership 
of  4,000  with  a  capital  of  1,000,000  francs,  and  a 
turnover  of  20,000,00  francs  yearly  in  a  small  vil- 
lage situated  in  the  beautiful  mountains  of 
Oltenia ! 

Now  every  village  possesses  its  own  Bank. 
Their  capital  is  obtained  by  obliging  each  member 
to  invest  a  certain  sum  in  the  beginning,  paid  in 
instalments  from  his  savings  year  by  year  after 


86  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  sale  of  his  crop.  He  has  no  right  to  with- 
draw this  capital  before  a  fixed  time  and  under 
special  conditions.  He  receives  dividends  vary- 
ing between  6  and  10  per  cent.  To  avoid  the 
entrance  into  the  Banks  of  big  capitalists,  the  sum 
subscribed  by  each  member  cannot  amount  to 
more  than  5,000  francs.  Besides  this  fixed  cap- 
ital there  are  interest-bearing  deposits,  the  amount 
of  which  is  not  limited  and  for  which  the  Banks 
pay  5  per  cent.  The  control  of  the  Bank  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  Committee  elected  each  year  in  a 
peasant  assembly.  All  members  of  the  Commit- 
tee are  peasants.  Every  member  can  borrow 
money  from  the  Bank  at  an  interest  varying  from 
7  to  12  per  cent.  He  requires  for  that  the  guar- 
antee of  one  of  his  fellow-villagers  or  some  pledge 
or  security.  The  interest  might  appear  high  to 
the  American  people,  but  considering  the  scarcity 
of  capital  in  Rumania  and  the  former  conditions 
described,  the  new  conditions  created  by  the  Banks 
are  a  great  amelioration.  Some  banks  have  more 
capital  than  they  can  employ,  others  have  less  and 
want  more.  Hence,  all  the  Banks  of  a  District 
are  federated  and  through  a  Central  Institution 
they  support  one  another.  Another  Central  Insti- 
tution in  Bucharest,  named  "Casa  Centrala  a 
Bancilor  Populare  si  Co-operativelor  Satesti" 
(The  Central  House  of  Popular  Banks  and  Co- 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE  OF  RUMANIA  AT  A  MILITARY  SCHOOL.     THE  CROWN  PRINCE  OF  RUMANIA 
(THE  NEAREST  FIGURE  TO  THE  CAMERA  WITH  GUN)  LEARNING  TO  USE  A  MACHINE- 
GUN  AT  A  MILITARY  SCHOOL 


Peasant  Co-operation  in  Rumania         87 

operative  Societies),  directs  the  whole  of  the 
federations  and  of  the  banks.  This  institution  is 
the  principal  centre  of  credit  and  exercises  its 
control  by  means  of  its  various  inspectors. 

Past  now  are  the  times  of  usury.  The  peasant 
is  out  of  its  clutches.  His  work  is  justly  paid 
now,  his  crop  is  rightly  sold  and  bought.  But 
that  was  only  the  first  step.  The  community  has 
at  its  disposal  a  large  capital  which  can  be  em- 
ployed for  its  use,  and  in  fact  it  was  quickly 
utilised  in  that  direction  where  the  peasant's  needs 
were  more  pressing.  And  so  we  come  to  the 
foundation  of  the  Agrarian  Co-operative  Societies. 

Some  explanation  is  necessary  before  entering 
upon  this  matter. 

Rumania  inherited  from  past  generations  a 
complex  agrarian  situation.  The  new  bills  voted 
by  the  Parliament  last  spring  correct  it  in  part,  but 
as  they  have  not  yet  been  applied,  the  peasant  has 
had  to  deal  with  it  himself.  What  was  that 
situation?  Half  of  the  arable  land  in  the  whole 
of  the  country  belongs  to  some  three  or  four  thou- 
sand landowners,  and  only  the  other  half  is  owned 
by  the  6,000,000  peasants  who,  in  the  absence  of 
manufacturing  industries,  are  forced  to  live  on 
and  from  this  land.  The  greater  part  of  the 
landowners  are  absentees ;  they  do  not  work  their 
land  but  hire  it  for  terms  varying  between  five  and 


88  Rumania  and  the  War 

ten  years  to  different  speculators  who  exploit  the 
land  and  also  the  peasant  without  reason  or  pity. 

Possessing  a  higher  spirit  of  organisation,  a 
greater  daring  and  self-confidence  derived  from 
their  experience  in  the  Popular  Banks,  and  what  is 
essential,  possessing  now  capital,  the  peasants  ap- 
peared as  competitors  with  the  speculators  and 
suddenly  they  defeated  and  replaced  them.  The 
Co-operative  Societies  were  always  able  to  pay  a 
higher  rent  than  the  speculators  and,  through 
their  intensive  cultivation  and  organised  labour, 
to  produce  increased  and  more  varied  crops  of 
better  quality  than  could  the  former.  The  land- 
owner himself  is  now  eager  to  contract  with  the 
peasants  instead  of  the  exploiters;  of  course  he 
wants  and  obtains  higher  rent. 

The  following  figures  will  show  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Agricultural  Co-operative  Societies: 

In  1905  there  were  37  Societies  with  4,503  members 
having  hired  82,000  acres  and  paying  1,259,946  francs 
rent. 

In  1916  the  number  of  acres  was  over  1,000,000  and 
the  rent  paid  about  13,000,000  francs  and  the  member- 
ship was  100,000. 

The  co-operative  societies  are  managed  by 
Committees,  as  are  the  Popular  Banks.  The 
Committees  are  elected  yearly  by  the  peasants. 
Financially  they  are  supported  by  the  Popular 


Peasant  Co-operation  in  Rumania         89 

Banks  in  the  beginning,  and  afterwards,  if  neces- 
sary. But  after  two  or  three  years  they  have 
their  own  capital.  For  the  technical  part  there  is 
for  every  Society  an  Agricultural  Engineer  of 
special  scientific  training  and  practical  experience. 
He  arranges  the  plans  of  rotative  culture,  the 
selection  of  seeds  and  live  stock,  and  indicates  and 
supervises  the  execution  of  the  work  in  accordance 
with  scientific  principles.  Every  Society  has  at 
its  disposal  its  own  machinery  and  breeding  stock. 
The  land  is  divided  into  big  estates  suitable  for 
every  kind  of  culture  and  every  variety  of  crop. 
In  each  of  those  estates  every  peasant  possesses 
such  an  extent  of  land  as  he  and  his  family  are 
able  to  work,  taking  care  at  the  same  time  that 
all  members  of  the  Society  are  satisfied.  The 
selling  of  the  crop  is  done  collectively.  In  this 
way  the  peasants  succeeded  as  I  said  in  increasing 
the  crops,  in  making  them  better  and  more  varied. 
A  general  improvement  may  be  observed  in  the 
villages  where  there  are  co-operative  societies. 
The  houses  are  better  built,  the  people  better 
dressed  and  nourished,  the  live  stock  more  abun- 
dant and  better  selected.  The  following  descrip- 
tion made  by  one  of  the  best  agriculturalists  of  the 
country  summarizes  what  I  have  described : 

"The  land  Perisoru,   District  of  Braila,  was 
rented  to  the  speculator  Gaetan  for  80,000  francs 


90  Rumania  and  the  War 

a  year;  the  co-operative  society  'A.I.Cuza'  took  it 
and  paid  163,000  francs.  In  1916  that  society 
sold  1750  tons  of  wheat,  600  tons  of  barley,  600 
tons  of  corn,  besides  what  each  peasant  sold  of  his 
own  property  (apart  from  that  of  the  society). 
The  land  Filiu,  in  the  same  District,  for  which 
the  same  speculator  Gaetan  paid  80,000  francs 
yearly,  was  rented  by  the  society  'Tudor  Vladi- 
mirescu'  at  the  rate  of  120,000  francs.  The  land 
Bordeiul  Verde,  let  to  another  speculator  at 
120,000  francs,  passed  to  the  society  *L  C. 
Bratianu'  which  pays  214,000  francs.  In  spite  of 
these  high  rents  the  peasant  prospered  enormously. 
The  houses  are  vastly  improved,  food  is  better, 
the  machinery  and  the  live  stock  have  been  in- 
creased. The  society  of  Perisoru  possesses  a  re- 
serve fund  of  200,000  francs  and  has  subscribed 
100,000  francs  to  the  National  War  Loan. 

uThat  fact  could  not  have  been  explained  other- 
wise than  by  the  increase  of  production.  Truly, 
according  to  collected  statistics,  in  the  best  years 
the  production  was  24  hectolitres  per  hectare  (2 
acres),  when  the  land  belonged  to  the  speculator, 
and  40  hectolitres  per  hectare  when  it  was  peasant 
property.  The  society  increased  and  improved 
the  live  stock.  The  landowners  in  the  neighbour- 
hood brought  their  mares  to  the  stallions  of  the 
society." 


Peasant  Co-operation  in  Rumania         91 

There  are  also  other  kinds  of  co-operative 
societies.  Amongst  them  I  mention  the  societies 
for  forest  exploitation,  the  milk  societies  and  so- 
cieties of  consumers.  The  latter  only  have  not 
succeeded.  The  competition  of  private  traders 
and  the  want  of  skilled  and  trained  personnel 
were  the  causes  of  failure.  Of  course  the  man- 
agers, who  must  necessarily  possess  a  special 
knowledge  of  many  details,  could  not  be  recruited 
from  among  the  peasants;  they  had  to  be  chosen 
among  the  specialists;  but  these  were  just  those 
who  had  failed  in  private  business  and  conse- 
quently were  not  of  the  best  type. 

In  any  case,  from  what  I  have  described  it  ap- 
pears that  the  beginning  of  Rumanian  co-opera- 
tion is  exceedingly  encouraging  and  the  time  is 
not  far  distant  when  all  the  agricultural  activity 
of  the  country  will  be  established  on  a  co-opera-* 
tive  basis.  Besides  the  increase  of  the  individual 
and  collective  wealth,  a  powerful  political  idea 
resulted  from  the  system.  The  various  meetings 
held  annually  by  the  organisation  of  the  Banks 
and  co-operative  societies  educated  the  peasants 
in  the  interests  of  the  community;  and  the  success 
obtained  increased  not  only  their  capital  but  their 
confidence  and  daring  also.  They  were  now  ready 
to  be  an  important  political  factor  and  the  new 
franchise  Bill,  giving  universal  vote,  is  partly  in- 


92  Rumania  and  the  War 

spired  by  the  proof  of  capacity  which  the  people 
have  already  given. 

Note  then,  American  fellow  co-operatists,  that 
even  your  little  comrade  from  the  Danubian  plains 
and  Carpathian  mountains,  although  in  extremely 
difficult  conditions,  has  done  wonderful  work  in 
co-operation. 

When  will  the  time  come,  when  the  Rumanian 
co-operative  societies  will  sell  directly  to  foreign 
consumers'  societies  their  abundant  goods  and  on 
the  other  hand  when  great  foreign  co-operative 
societies  will  provide  the  Rumanians  with  all  the 
agricultural  machinery  and  manufactured  goods 
which  they  require? 


FOR  THE  REUNION  OF  ALL  RU- 
MANIANS 

AMONG  all  the  small  nations  which  entered 
the  great  war,  Rumania  is  the  least  known; 
about  her  very  little  is  heard.  During  her  fight 
and  her  tragical  situation  after  the  Russian  col- 
lapse, all  sympathies  were  directed  towards  her. 
But  quickly  afterward,  she  was  forgotten,  and 
now  when  her  fate  is  to  be  decided,  people  know 
less  than  ever  concerning  her  condition. 

It  seems  to  us  that  she  deserves  more  attention, 
not  only  because  she  fought  so  bravely  and  suf- 
fered so  much,  but  also  on  account  of  her  great 
possibilities  in  the  near  future.  Various  English, 
French  and  American  missions  that  were  sent  to 
Rumania's  help,  came  back  unanimously  with  ex- 
cellent impressions  of  the  qualities  of  the  Ru- 
manian peasantry,  and  all  assert  that  this  people, 
if  united  with  all  its  racial  kin  now  under  Austro- 
Hungarian  oppression,  is  capable  of  a  great  and 
rapid  development. 

Various  in-born  qualities,  vivid  intelligence, 
diligence,  the  hospitality  of  her  inhabitants,  com- 

93 


94  Rumania  and  the  War 

bined  with  the  great  richness  of  the  territories 
inhabited  by  them,  make  it  possible  that  in  the 
centre  of  Europe  this  Latin  people  may  exert  an 
influence  for  equilibrium  and  sane  democracy. 

Rumania  entered  the  war  in  1916  by  her  own 
will,  not  forced  like  Belgium  and  Serbia.  We  can 
say  more :  Having  seen  the  disasters  of  those  two 
countries,  and  in  spite  of  the  mistrust  which 
Russia  gave  her  cause  to  feel,  she  nevertheless 
joined  the  Entente  at  a  time  when  success  was  far 
distant. 

Rumania  had  brethren  living  under  oppression 
on  both  sides.  The  Russian  Czars  had  taken  and 
retaken  Bessarabia  twice  in  a  century,  and  in 
Hungary  and  Austria  other  brethren  had  been 
oppressed  for  centuries.  She  could  easily  enter 
the  war  on  either  side.  She  preferred  the  then 
more  dangerous  side — the  Germans  were  then  at 
the  top  of  their  success. 

Two  factors  pushed  Rumania  towards  the 
Entente;  the  racial  feeling  (Rumanians,  like  the 
French  and  Italians,  are  a  Latin-speaking  people) , 
and  the  democratic  temper.  I  say  expressly 
democratic  temper  although  in  spite  of  the  demo- 
cratic constitution  and  the  profound  democratic 
feeling  of  the  masses,  Rumania  was  ruled  by  non- 
democratic  elements.  But  the  war  was  made  by 
the  people,  and  against  the  landlord's  will.  The 


For  the  Reunion  of  All  Rumanians      95 

temper  of  the  people  decided  the  war, — and  Ru- 
mania took  her  place  in  the  struggle.  When  the 
German  drive  was  strongest  on  Verdun,  through 
Rumania's  intervention  the  Germans  were  obliged 
to  remove  some  thirty  divisions,  which  were 
directed  towards  Rumania,  and  the  Verdun  front 
was  delivered. 

Rumania's  share  of  misfortune  was  great.  In 
the  Rumanian  Kingdom  there  are  only  graves. 
One  million  died  by  starvation  and  disease.  The 
last  letter  I  received  from  my  brother  said:  "No 
meat  can  be  sold,  and  all  days  are  meatless. 
Bread  is  a  mixture  of  oats  and  sago  and  can  only 
be  had  five  times  a  week.  A  pair  of  old  shoes 
costs  $150,  and  an  old  overcoat  $200.  A  gen- 
eral epidemic  of  yellow  jaundice  is  over  the  coun- 
try and  even  the  royal  family  are  suffering  from 
it.  But  we  could  stand  all  this  if  only  we  could 
have  some  hope  for  the  future."  Since  then  the 
conditions  are  worse.  In  Transylvania  and  Hun- 
gary, 15,000  intellectuals,  priests  and  teachers, 
were  hanged  by  the  Hungarians,  being  accused  of 
taking  the  part  of  the  Rumanians  during  the  inva- 
sion. 300,000  Rumanians  living  near  the  Ru- 
manian boundary  were  removed  into  Hungary 
and  on  their  estates  were  put  Hungarians.  In 
Bulgaria  there  were  30,000  Rumanian  prisoners. 
Only  10,000  returned  home.  The  others  died 


96  Rumania  and  the  War 

of  starvation  or  were  killed  in  the  public  places, 
having  their  heads  covered  with  bags  and  knocked 
off  with  clubs !  Innumerable  have  been  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Rumanians  during  the  present  war. 
The  so-called  "peace  treaty"  of  Bucharest  took 
from  Rumania  all  the  Carpathians,  the  Dobrudja, 
more  than  500,000  co-nationals,  all  the  riches  in 
oil  and  minerals,  and  prohibited  Rumanians  by 
treaty  from  ever  mentioning  in  books  or  speech 
the  fact  that  they  have  brethren  in  Transylvania ! 

In  spite  of  so  many  misfortunes  the  spirit  in 
the  country  is  still  high.  Isolated  from  their 
natural  friends,  receiving  no  help  of  any  kind, 
suffering  long  under  German  military  occupation 
and  under  the  Rumanian  Junker  Government,  im- 
posed by  the  Germans,  the  people  remained  loyal 
to  their  cause.  They  suffered  in  silence,  but  they 
did  not  lose  their  hope  and  they  are  anxiously 
awaiting  the  hour  of  their  liberation  and  of  the 
fulfillment  of  their  ideals. 

I,  myself,  saw  two  Rumanian  officers  who  after 
the  treaty  imposed  on  the  country,  left  the  army 
and  with  great  risks  in  passing  through  the  Ger- 
man and  Bolshevist  lines  arrived  at  Moscow  on 
foot.  From  there  they  came  to  France,  where 
they  entered  the  French  army.  A  friend  writes 
me  from  Paris  that  "at  the  first  news  of  the 
Entente's  victories,  people  in  Bucharest  cried 


For  the  Reunion  of  All  Rumanians       97 

'Down  with  the  Germans !'  They  sang  the  Mar- 
seillaise and  shot  upon  the  German  Guard.  Many 
of  them  were  killed  and  imprisoned." 

If  on  the  Rumanian  side  the  attitude  was  and 
is  clear,  we  cannot  reproach  her  for  the  treaty 
to  which  she  was  forced  by  the  Russian  betrayal; 
but  it  seems  that  on  the  side  of  the  Allies  and 
especially  of  America  some  misunderstanding  has 
existed. 

Some  time  ago,  the  Congress  passed  a  Bill  for 
the  creation  of  a  Slavic  legion  in  America.  It  is 
specified  that  Slavs  comprise :  Czechs,  Jugo-Slavs 
and  Ruthenians.  Let  me  say  that  Ruthenians  did 
not  demand  that  favor.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
there  are  in  America  nearly  200,000  Rumanians 
from  Transylvania  (the  oppressed  country) ,  they 
were  not  included  in  the  Bill.  And  they  were 
anxious  to  fight  for  their  own  cause.  I  worked 
two  months  for  the  passage  of  the  Bill,  but  my 
efforts  were  vain. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  his  speech  of  23rd  August, 
spoke  about  an  independent  Poland,  a  Jugo-Slav 
and  Czecho-Slovak  Independent  State,  but  for 
restoration  of  Rumania  only.  He  spoke  about 
the  Italians  in  Trieste  rejoining  Italy,  but  said 
nothing  about  the  Rumanians  in  Hungary  rejoin- 
ing Rumania. 

The  tenth  point  of  the  President's  speech  on 


98  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  8th  January  mentions  the  federalization  of 
Austria-Hungary.  No  people  of  Austria  likes 
forced  federation,  and  federation  in  and  with 
Austria-Hungary  is  a  forced  federation.  Aus- 
tria-Hungary is  now  ready  to  federate  (against 
the  wills  of  her  peoples)  and  Hungary  does  more; 
she  says  that  she  is  also  oppressed  and  separates 
from  Austria,  in  order  to  be  more  free  to  oppress 
the  Rumanians,  the  Serbs  and  the  Slovaks. 

Various  prominent  people  with  whom  I  have  dis- 
cussed the  Rumanian  problem  have  asked  me  if 
Rumania  formerly  possessed  Transylvania.  But 
Transylvania  was  not  possessed  in  the  past  even 
by  Hungary.  Until  1865  Transylvania  was  an 
independent  principality,  ruled  by  the  Unio  Tres 
Nationum  (Magyars,  Szekelers  and  Germans), 
who  represented  500,000  people.  Then  fearing 
Rumania's  development,  the  Assembly  of  Tran- 
sylvania, composed  of  one  hundred  deputies  rep- 
resenting the  half  million  oppressors,  and  thir- 
teen Rumanians  representing  the  majority  of  three 
millions  oppressed,  voted  the  union  with  Hungary. 
The  thirteen  Rumanians  voted  against.  The 
union  with  Hungary  was  made  in  order  to 
Magyarise  the  Rumanians.  But  they  have  not 
succeeded  in  the  last  fifty  years,  in  spite  of  their 
efforts.  Such  an  illegal  act  has  no  value  and  if 
Rumania  did  not  possess  Transylvania,  Hungary 
also  did  not. 


For  the  Reunion  of  All  Rumanians       99 

Another  question  put  to  me  has  been  about  the 
number  of  Hungarians  living  in  Transylvania  and 
other  Rumanian  countries.  I  can  reply  that  even 
according  to  the  Hungarian  statistics  which  are 
untrustworthy,  the  Rumanian  element  is  in  a 
majority  everywhere  in  comparison  with  the  other 
three  nationalities,  mixed  with  them. 

So,  historically,  geographically,  ethnograph- 
ically,  the  right  is  on  the  Rumanian  side. 

Now  I  cannot  see  the  reason  for  such  an  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  official  America.  I  know 
only  that  without  the  Union  of  the  Rumanians 
from  Transylvania,  Banat,  Hungary  and  Buco- 
wina,  with  those  from  Rumania  and  Bessarabia, 
there  cannot  be  a  just  and  lasting  peace  in  the 
centre  of  Europe.  Through  various  revolutions, 
drowned  in  blood,  in  the  i6th,  i8th  and  I9th 
centuries,  through  various  wars,  memoranda,  pro- 
tests and  writings,  the  Rumanians  from  every- 
where have  always  demanded  their  Union. 

The  very  existence  of  the  Rumanian  nation 
cannot  be  assured  without  the  realization  of  this 
aspiration.  The  normal  development  of  Ru- 
mania cannot  be  accomplished  without  the  fulfil- 
ment of  its  national  ideal.  The  peace  of  the 
world  will  not  be  assured,  because  after  the  right 
settlement  for  all  other  nations,  we  could  not  suf- 
fer that  only  we  in  Europe  should  be  unjustly 
treated.  And  the  first  State  where  the  army 


ioo  Rumania  and  the  War 

police  instituted  by  the  League  of  Nations  should 
interfere,  would  be  Rumania,  to  help  the  Hun- 
garians to  oppress  us  more ! 

If,  as  the  President  said  in  his  address  to  the 
Senate  on  February  n,  1918:  "What  is  at  stake 
now  is  the  peace  of  the  world.  What  we  are 
striving  for  is  a  new  international  order  based 
upon  the  broad  and  universal  principles  of  right 
and  justice,"  then  peace  and  a  new  international 
order,  against  our  race  and  nation,  against  our 
rights,  cannot  be. 

Instead  of  working  for  the  complete  democrati- 
zation of  our  country  we  shall  be  forced  to  fight 
in  revolutions  for  our  oppressed  brothers. 

And  there  are  strong  elements  for  democracy 
in  Rumania.  First  of  all,  there  are  the  peasants 
themselves.  If  till  the  present  time  the  landlords 
have  dominated,  because  sustained  morally  by  the 
autocratic  forces  of  Russia  and  Austria,  now  they 
will  disappear  like  a  mist.  In  the  last  twenty 
years,  the  peasants  by  their  own  efforts  have  cre- 
ated 4000  popular  banks  in  order  to  escape  the 
usury  of  the  landlords,  and  rented  for  the  co- 
operative societies,  which  are  highly  developed 
among  us,  more  than  two  million  acres. 

Owing  to  this  and  to  the  splendid  deeds  of  the 
soldiers  in  this  war  for  the  Allied  Cause,  even  the 
landlord  governing  class  voted  the  reform  of  a 


For  the  Reunion  of  All  Rumanians.     IGI 

new  franchise  based  on  universal  suffrage,  and  a 
new  agrarian  bill  giving  to  the  peasants  four  mil- 
lion acres.  Not  satisfied  with  that,  fifteen  depu- 
ties, sustained  by  the  great  masses,  formed  a  new 
party,  the  Labor  Party,  which,  with  the  aid  of 
the  peasants,  will  be  the  governing  party  of  to- 
morrow. Our  great  help  will  come  also  from 
Bessarabia  and  Transylvania. 

Bessarabia,  a  pure  Rumanian  province,  which 
joined  with  Rumania  of  her  free  will  last  April, 
has  a  very  democratic  constitution.  In  her  As- 
sembly, elected  by  universal  man  and  woman  vote, 
are  represented  all  the  national  minority  groups. 
Her  independence  (declared  last  November)  was 
not  recognized  by  the  Allies,  although  they  recog- 
nized the  Ukrainians  and  the  Finns.  But  if  evi- 
dence is  not  to  be  contradicted  she  will  be  recog- 
nized and  will  be  a  dominant  factor  in  the  demo- 
cratic life  of  the  future  Rumania. 

The  Transylvanians,  who  always  fought 
against  the  oppression  of  the  Hungarian  Counts 
and  Barons,  who  are  deprived  of  their  own  nobil- 
ity, are  a  people  of  peasants  and  purely  demo- 
cratic. In  1848,  when  they  revolted  against  the 
Hungarians,  they  assembled  to  the  number  of 
40,000  on  the  "Field  of  Freedom"  near  the  town 
of  Blaj  and  took  the  oath:  uto  defend  our  Ru- 
manian language  and  rights,  defend  liberty,  equal- 


102  Rumania  and  the  War 

ity  and  fraternity;  in  accordance  with  those  princi- 
ples to  respect  the  nationalities  of  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Transylvania,  claiming  from  them  equal 
respect  for  our  own  nationality.  I  will  not  at- 
tempt to  oppress  anybody  but  neither  will  I  suffer 
the  oppression  of  anybody.  I  will  co-operate  in 
the  furtherance  of  the  good  of  mankind,  of  the 
Rumanian  Nation  and  of  the  Fatherland.  So 
help  me  God  and  bring  salvation  to  my  soul." 

And  the  Transylvanians  of  to-day  are  the  dig- 
nified sons  of  those  of  1848. 

America,  who  defends  the  rights  of  all  the  op- 
pressed, whose  creation  is  based  upon  justice  and 
rights,  who  through  Lincoln  defended  the  cause 
of  the  colored  people,  cannot  be  deaf  to  our  just 
demands. 

America  will  help  us  to  create  an  integral  Ru- 
mania, which  necessarily  will  be  a  strong 
Democracy  and  a  factor  for  tranquillity  in  tihs 
very  disturbed  part  of  Europe. 

America  is  not  bound  by  a  treaty  with  Rumania, 
like  the  other  Powers  of  the  Entente,  but  she  is 
bound  by  her  ideal  of  justice,  stronger  than  any 
treaty,  and  according  to  her  ideal,  she  cannot  do 
us  injustice. 


THE     WHITE     GUARD— SO     CALLED     BECAUSE,     HAVING     EXHAUSTED 
THEIR  AMMUNITION,  THE  SOLDIERS  ATTACKED  AND  ROUTED 
THE    ENEMY    WITH    CLUBBED    RIFLES      ,     ,, 


UKRAINIA  AND  BESSARABIA 

/TS  HE  determination  arrived  at  by  the  free 
••-  choice  of  the  Moldavian  people  of  Bess- 
arabia to  attach  themselves  again  to  Rumania, 
from  which  they  have  been  separated  for  a  hun- 
dred years  by  violence  and  treachery,  has  given 
rise  to  lively  protests  in  various  states  and  to  pro- 
found mistrust  in  circles  of  political  opinion. 
Some  of  these  protests  are  easily  understood. 
The  Bulgarians  and  the  Hungarians,  for  example, 
cannot  regard  with  favour,  after  having  imposed 
upon  us  a  peace  of  plunder,  our  finding  strength 
for  new  life  in  the  union  of  Bessarabia  with  Ru- 
mania. The  coincidence  of  the  decision  of  Bess- 
arabia with  the  peace  imposed  by  Germany  has 
caused  an  understandable  confusion,  and  this  act, 
so  important  for  us  Rumanians,  has  been  re- 
garded with  a  certain  distrust. 

But  what  is  indeed  incomprehensible  is  the  fact 
that  the  most  energetic  protests  come  from  the 
Ukrainians  themselves.  These  people,  like  the 
Moldavians  of  Bessarabia,  have  been  victims  of  a 
perfidious  conquest  by  Tsarist  Russia.  Now  that 

103 


IO4  Rumania  and  the  War 

Tsarism  has  disappeared,  let  us  hope  forever, 
does  the  Socialist  republic  of  the  Ukraine  intend 
to  profit  by  the  unjust  conquest  of  the  Russian 
autocracy?  In  refusing  to  Bessarabia  the  liberty 
freely  to  express  its  will,  Ukrainia  saps  the  very 
foundation  of  its  own  existence.  For  the  liberty 
of  Ukrainia,  just  as  much  as  that  of  Bessarabia, 
derives  from  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
the  Russian  revolution — "the  right  of  peoples  to 
govern  themselves." 

Upon  what,  then,  is  the  protest  of  Ukrainia 
based?  It  cannot  be  upon  historical  arguments. 
From  the  constitution  of  the  Rumanian  people 
down  to  1812,  Bessarabia  was  an  integral  part 
of  Moldavia.  The  very  name  of  Bessarabia  did 
not  exist  before  1812.  It  was  given  to  it  only 
in  order  to  destroy  the  memory  of  its  name  as  a 
Moldavian  province.  Upon  ethnic  arguments? 
But  in  a  population  of  about  three  millions  in 
Bessarabia  there  are  two  millions  who  are  Ru- 
manian Moldavians  and  only  210,000  who  are 
Ukrainians.  These  latter  are  scattered  over  the 
whole  extent  of  the  country  and  mingled  with  the 
rest  of  the  population. 

One  cannot  conceive  a  territorial  arrangement 
abandoning  to  Ukrainia  that  part  of  Bessarabia 
which  borders  upon  it.  Bessarabia  is  a  geo- 
graphic unity  clearly  determined  by  its  national 


Ukrainia  and  Bessarabia  105 

boundaries,  the  Dniester,  the  Pruth  and  the  sea. 
But  what  is  most  important  is  that  beyond  the 
Dniester,  in  Ukrainia  itself,  there  are  compact 
masses  of  Rumanians,  much  more  important 
numerically  than  the  Ukrainians  in  Bessarabia. 
To  be  just,  therefore,  it  would  be  necessary  that 
certain  important  parts  of  Ukrainia  should  be  at- 
tached to  Bessarabia,  in  exchange  for  narrow  re- 
gions in  the  north  of  the  latter,  which  would  pass 
to  Ukrainia. 

Assuredly  this  solution  would  hardly  suit  the 
Ukrainians.  For  us  the  protest  of  Ukrainia 
has  a  moral  significance  for  the  future.  If  it  is 
upheld,  it  will  bring  in  its  train  bad  relations 
between  that  country  and  ourselves.  Beyond  the 
question  of  the  interests  of  our  common  enemies,  I 
can  see  no  motive  for  rivalry  between  the  Ukrain- 
ians and  the  Rumanians.  Our  peasants  resemble 
theirs  in  their  way  of  living,  their  customs,  and 
their  religion  so  closely  that  a  rapprochement 
between  them  would  be  very  easy  to  make.  I 
believe,  moreover,  that  the  minority  composed  of 
210,000  Ukrainians  in  Bessarabia  could  serve  to 
promote  such  a  rapprochement,  and  that  the 
manner  in  which  they  will  be  treated  by  us  will  be 
a  pledge  and  a  guarantee  of  like  treatment  for  the 
Rumanian  elements  in  Ukrainia — elements  much 
more  considerable  than  is  generally  thought.  To 


io6  Rumania  and  the  War 

see  the  real  importance  of  these  Rumanian  groups 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  recall  that  the  departments 
of  Tiraspol  and  Ananiev  in  the  government  of 
Cherson,  the  government  of  Podolia,  the  region 
of  Biltzi,  and  all  the  left  bank  of  the  Dniester  are 
completely  Rumanian.  And  further,  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  as  far  as  the 
Bug,  are  Moldavians.  Purely  Rumanian  village 
names  such  as  Perisori,  Mosnegii,  Slobozi,  are 
found  far  to  the  east  beyond  the  Dniester.  Ru- 
manian officers  collecting  provisions  in  these  re- 
gions have  been  surprised  to  find  themselves 
understood  when  speaking  Moldavian  by  all  the 
peasants.  At  Ekaterinoslav  there  is  a  Moldavian 
community  of  over  two  thousand  persons,  and 
entire  hamlets  as  far  as  the  district  of  Kiev  are 
equally  Moldavian.  I  myself  in  passing  through 
Russia  have  been  surprised  to  meet,  far  to  the 
east  of  the  Dniester,  peasants  who  spoke  Ruma- 
nian. 

The  existence  of  these  considerable  Rumanian 
masses,  which,  according  to  experts,  attain  the 
figure  of  one  and  a  half  millions,  and  the  existence 
of  210,000  Ukrainians  in  Bessarabia,  should  be 
powerful  motives  to  lead  us  to  understand  rather 
than  to  hate  each  other.  Reciprocal  guarantees 
for  every  freedom  of  religion,  of  instruction  and 
of  civic  life  will  be  the  most  solid  base  upon  which 


Ukrainia  and  Bessarabia  107 

to  found  good  relations  between  them  and  us. 
Let  us  hope  that  it  will  be  so.     And  in  this  con- 
nection it  may  be  useful  to  cite  certain  statistics 
for  the  regions  concerned. 

THE  POPULATION  OF  BESSARABIA 

The  Journal  de  la  Societe  de  Statistlque  de 
Paris  of  May,  1918,  in  an  article  about  the  coun- 
tries taken  away  from  Russia,  and  dealing  with 
the  peoples  that  inhabited  those  countries,  gives 
the  following  figures  regarding  Bessarabia : 

''Bessarabia  (45,000  sq.  kil.)  whose  popula- 
tion amounted  in  1912  to  2,540,000  inhabitants, 
had  in  1897  only  1,935,000.  At  this  latter  date 
the  division  according  to  the  mother  language 
was  as  follows : 

Moldavians  and  Rumanians 920,000 

Russians 548,000 

Little  Russians  ....  390,000 

Greater  Russians   ..156,000 

White  Russians.  . .  .     2,000 

Jews 228,000 

Bulgarians    182,000 

Germans 60,000 

Turks   56,000 

Poles 12,000 

These  statistics  are  bad  from  three  points  of 
view:  first,  they  are  too  old;  secondly,  there  is  no 
indication  of  the  sources  from  which  they  are 


io8  Rumania  and  the  War 

derived;  thirdly,  they  are  inexact.  The  compila- 
tion of  statistics  is  a  delicate  matter  which  re- 
quires much  work,  much  intelligence,  and,  above 
all,  honesty.  These  three  qualities,  especially  the 
last,  were  unknown  in  the  old  Russian  bureau- 
cratic regime,  under  which  these  data  were  com- 
piled. We  believe  that  it  is  our  duty  to  rectify 
them. 

The  most  recent  and  by  far  the  most  complete 
figures  about  Bessarabia  are  given  by  Alexis  Nour 
in  his  ethnographical  map  of  Bessarabia,  made  in 
1916,  according  to  the  following  sources: 

a)  Material    regarding   nationalities    in    Bessarabia 

collected  by  the  Zemstvos  of  Bessarabia  in  1906- 
1909; 

b)  The  data  provided   by  the  annual  statistics  of 

Bessarabia  in  1914; 

c)  Maps  of  the  Russian  General  Staff; 

d)  Various  other  maps  of  Bessarabia  published  in 

Russia  and  Germany; 

e)  Various  Russian  studies  about  Bessarabia. 

f)  Personal  inquiries. 

This  work  is  done  conscientiously  and  the  au- 
thor cannot  be  suspected  of  partiality.  The  fig- 
ures given  below  are,  we  think,  the  nearest  the 
truth : 

Total  Area 44,000  (sq.  kilometers) 

Total  Population  .  .  .3,000,000  inhabitants 
in  round  numbers 


Ukrainia  and  Bessarabia  109 

divided  according  to  mother  language : 

Rumanian  Moldavian 2,000,000 

Russified    Rumanians 75 ,000 

Jews  270,000 

Gypsies 65,000 

Armenians 18,000 

Ukrainians    210,000 

Russians 85,000 

Lithovenes    (Old  Russia) 40,000 

Cossacks 35,000 

Bulgarians    (Colonists) 60,000 

Gagaoutz   (Christian  Turks)  ...  30,000 

Germans    (Colonists) 70,000 

Poles    20,000 

Greeks   10,000 

French 2,000 

Other  nationalities 10,000 

From  these  figures  it  is  seen  clearly  that  two 
thirds  of  the  Bessarabian  population  are  Ruma- 
nians; indeed  a  larger  proportion  than  that,  if  we 
take  into  account  the  Jews,  Gypsies,  and  Armeni- 
ans, who  live  in  great  masses  in  Rumania  itself, 
using  the  Rumanian  language  in  their  everyday 
life  and  affairs,  sharing  Rumanian  sentiments,  and 
having  no  aspiration  to  found  a  state  of  their  own 
in  these  regions.  We  may  conclude  safely  that 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  population  of  Bess- 
arabia is  then  Rumanian. 

Anyhow,  the  group  of  Russians,  even  by  putting 
together  all  kinds  of  Russians,  cannot  exceed 


no  Rumania  and  the  War 

370,000  in  number;  that  is  to  say,  a  little  more 
than  10  per  cent  of  the  total  population. 

For  these  reasons  we  are  surprised  that  in 
the  Revue  des  Sciences  Politiques  of  April,  1918, 
M.  F.  P.  Renaut,  in  an  article  otherwise  well-dis- 
posed toward  the  Rumanians,  calls  Bessarabia  a 
"province  roumano-ruthene"  In  regard  to  the 
small  number  of  Ruthenians  (Little  Russians)  in 
comparison  with  the  Rumanians  this  epithet  seems 
to  us  all  the  more  unjustifiable  since  M.  Renaut 
himself  says  a  little  further  on  in  the  same  article : 
uln  this  province  the  Russian  and  even  the  Slav 
influences  did  not  penetrate."  He  adds  that  "the 
Rumanian  population  is  very  dense  there,"  and 
that  only  near  the  boundaries  of  Vodolii  and  on 
the  Black  Sea  littoral  did  the  Ruthenians  succeed 
in  establishing  themselves.  In  the  same  article, 
certainly  by  mistake,  the  river  Pruth  is  described 
as  a  river  "essentially  Wallachian,"  while  it  is 
essentially  Moldavian,  because  this  river  from  its 
source  to  its  confluence  with  the  Danube  drains 
exclusively  the  soil  of  ancient  Moldavia. 

The  author  adds  again,  that  because  the  Ru- 
manians are  in  the  majority,  the  Catholic  faith 
is  predominant.  Now  the  Rumanians  of  Bess- 
arabia, like  their  brothers  of  Rumania,  belong 
to  the  Greek-orthodox  church.  Only  a  part  of 
the  Transylvanians  are  Catholics. 


Ukrainia  and  Bessarabia  ill 

One  may  say  of  Bessarabia  that  being  on  the 
one  hand  isolated  from  Rumania  as  by  a  Chinese 
wall  by  numerous  Russian  frontier  guards,  and 
on  the  other  hand  being  a  boundary  province  of 
the  vast  Russia,  she  has  been  nearly  unknown. 
Therefore  we  have  as  many  different  sets  of  sta- 
tistics as  there  are  different  books  on  the  subject. 
Anyhow,  if  we  put  aside  the  statistics,  and  if  we 
ask  a  Russian  in  good  faith,  be  he  Bolshevist  or 
Tsarist  (if  there  are  still  any),  what  kind  of  a 
population  inhabits  Bessarabia,  he  will  without 
any  hesitation  reply  "Moldavian."  Thru  igno- 
rance or  intention  he  will  say  that  Moldavian  is 
not  the  same  thing  as  Rumanian.  To  elucidate 
this  problem  we  suggest  the  following  experiment : 
take  at  random  a  peasant  from  any  far  east  of 
Bessarabia  whose  father  and  grandfathers  have 
had  no  contact  during  a  whole  century  with  the 
Rumanians  (due  to  the  rigorous  Russian  meas- 
ures) ;  put  this  man  in  the  presence  of  another 
peasant  from  the  far  west  of  Transylvania  or  the 
Banat  whose  ancestors  suffered  for  a  thousand 
years  the  Hungarian  yoke;  if  these  two  simple 
and  uncultivated  men  are  not  able  to  understand 
one  another  without  the  slightest  difficulty,  using 
the  same  Rumanian  language,  we  are  willing  to 
renounce  all  our  national  aspirations! 

Bessarabia  is  a  part  that  was  torn  from  bleeding 


H2  Rumania  and  the  War 

Moldavia  in  1812.  It  is  a  Rumanian  province,  as 
it  always  was,  and  has  remained  such,  in  spite  of 
vicissitudes,  because  of  the  strong  vitality  of  the 
Rumanian  race.  When  the  right  of  self-determi- 
nation is  recognized  for  all  ethnical  groups,  it  is 
sad  to  see  that  there  is  some  hesitation  in  approv- 
ing the  decision  of  the  Bessarabian  diet.  This 
popular  assemly  which  undoubtedly  represents  the 
clear  conscience  of  the  masses,  decided  emphati- 
cally for  the  return  of  Bessarabia  to  the  mother 
country.  Why  is  not  hearty  approval  given  to  this 
just  aspiration  and  decision? 

We  have  not,  however,  lost  all  our  hope.  We 
are  convinced  that  soon  the  hour  of  justice  will 
come. 


MEMORANDUM    OF   THE    RUMANIAN 
WAR  AIMS    SUBMITTED  TO  THE 
INTER-ALLIED  LABOR  CON- 
FERENCE,    LONDON, 
FEBRUARY,  1918 

RUMANIA'S  entry  into  the  war  was  not  actu- 
ated by  ambitions  for  territorial  expansion  or 
for  the  acquisition  of  markets.  Exclusively  agri- 
cultural in  character,  Rumania  possessed  secure 
outlets  for  her  products;  and  her  growing  eco- 
nomic prosperity  was  never  more  flourishing  than 
in  the  first  years  of  the  war.  As  far  as  they  were 
concerned  the  propertied  classes  might  hence  have 
preferred  to  continue  in  a  lucrative  neutrality.  But 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  masses  there  was  a  deep 
sense  of  sore  injustice,  for  five  millions,  and  the 
best,  of  their  fellow-nationals  were  languishing 
under  foreign  rule.  A  century-long  oppression 
in  the  east  and  in  the  west  had  balked  the  blossom- 
ing of  the  rich  qualities  with  which  the  Rumanians 
are  endowed  and  had  stultified  the  contribution 
which  they  should  have  been  able  to  make  to  the 
common  life  of  mankind.  It  was  therefore  under 

"3 


H4  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  impulsion  of  their  national  instinct  that  the 
Rumanians  joined  in  the  war.  After  two  years 
of  European  war  they  could  not  but  have  been 
fully  aware  of  the  dreadful  risks  they  were  incur- 
ring, but  they  meant  by  such  conscious  sacrifice  to 
purchase  a  right  to  have  their  cause  heard  and 
judged  at  the  court  of  the  civilized  peoples  of  the 
world. 

The  efforts  of  the  Rumanian  people  towards 
national  unity  reach  far  back  into  the  centuries. 
That  has  been  the  ideal  which  guided  and  strength- 
ened them  through  the  many  vicissitudes  of  which 
their  history  is  full.  That  ideal  was  realized  for 
a  short  time  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
by  Michael  the  Brave,  who  united  under  his  rule 
Wallachia,  Moldavia,  and  Transylvania.  But  not 
only  was  it  found  impossible  to  perpetuate  that 
achievement,  on  account  of  the  power  of  the  Turks 
and  of  the  ungenerous  policies  of  the  neighboring 
Christian  princes;  Moldavia,  moreover,  was  sub- 
sequently robbed  of  its  two  most  fertile  provinces, 
Bucowina  and  Bessarabia;  the  autonomous  Duchy 
of  Transylvania  was  subjected  by  Austria  to  the 
Magyars;  while  Wallachia  and  what  remained  of 
Moldavia  were  leading  a  precarious  existence  un- 
der Turkish  suzerainty  and  an  equally  sordid  Rus- 
sian protectorate. 

Under  the  influences  of  the  ideals  set  up  by  the 


Memorandum  of  the  Rumanian  War  Alms     115 

French  Revolution, 'the  two  Rumanian  provinces 
of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  merged  about  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  into  the  independent 
kingdom  of  Rumania,  which  so  developed  within 
a  short  half-century  as  to  prove  that  it  was  re- 
ceptive ground  for  the  ideals  of  western  civiliza- 
tion. But  the  Rumanians  derived  little  joy  from 
their  proud  prosperity  when  they  looked  around 
them.  In  the  east  the  most  fertile  part  of  Mol- 
davia, Bessarabia,  was  withering  under  the  rule 
of  the  Tsars;  in  the  west  the  Magyars  were  in- 
flicting infinite  moral  tortures  upon  the  people  of 
Transylvania;  while  northwards,  in  Bucowina, 
the  traditional  Austrian  policy  was  slowly  but 
surely  disintegrating  the  national  consciousness 
of  the  Rumanian  population.  That  situation  viti- 
ated the  atmosphere  into  which  the  young  Ru- 
manian polity  was  developing,  and  no  Rumanian 
could  accept  it  as  the  settled  order  of  things.  Since 
those  in  whose  hands  lay  the  fate  of  the  subject 
Rumanians  showed  no  signs  of  being  willing  to 
grant  reform,  the  Rumanians  could  not  possibly 
have  let  pass  the  opportunity  of  enforcing  a 
redress  of  the  situation  which  was  afforded  by 
the  outbreak  of  the  war.  So  flagrant  was  the 
situation  that  in  a  conversation  which  took  place 
earlier  in  the  war  between  the  Austrian  Minister  at 
Bucharest,  Count  Czernin,  and  M.  Take  Jonescu 


n6  Rumania  and  the  War 

the  former  bluntly  exclaimed :  uYou  will  go  to  war 
with  us.  That  is  an  understood  thing.  It  is  both 
your  interest  and  your  duty." 

Rumania  was  faced  at  once  with  the  difficulty  of 
having  claims  upon  both  groups  of  belligerents. 
But  though  action  on  the  side  of  the  Central  Pow- 
ers offered  technically  infinitely  easier  and  wider 
possibilities,  the  Rumanians  had  no  hesitation  in 
choosing  the  more  difficult  task  because  it  was  the 
sacred  task  of  establishing  justice  which  the  west- 
ern democracies  and  her  sister-nations,  England, 
France  and  Italy,  had  taken  upon  them.  Rumania 
took  that  course  in  spite  of  the  distrust  in  which 
she  held  Russia.  Six  times  during  the  nineteenth 
century  did  the  armies  of  the  Czar  invade  and 
batten  upon  the  Rumanian  lands.  But  the  Ru- 
manians entertained  no  mistrust  towards  the  Rus- 
sian people,  and  the  writer  can  bear  testimony  to 
the  way  in  which  the  Russian  Revolution  found 
assistance  at  the  hands  of  the  Rumanians,  who 
gave  refuge  to  its  leaders,  circulated  their  writings, 
and  aided  them  in  many  ways.  Notwithstanding 
some  of  the  mistakes  committed  towards  her  by 
revolutionary  Russia,  Rumania  will  never  forget 
that  the  high  principles  which  the  revolution  ap- 
plied made  possible  the  first  step  in  the  process  of 
liberation  of  the  Rumanian  people.  The  principle 
of  self-determination  proclaimed  by  the  revolution 


Memorandum  of  the  Rumanian  War  Aims     117 

allowed  the  two  million  Rumanians  of  Bessarabia 
to  awake  to  new  life,  and  organize  themselves  on 
an  autonomous  and  democratic  basis  in  the  "Mol- 
davian Republic." 

There  shall  be  no  mention  made  here  of  the 
horrible  sufferings  which  the  Rumanians  have  gone 
through  during  the  war,  nor  shall  they  be  urged 
in  justification  of  any  claim  from  which  an  unjust 
arrangement  might  be  bequeathed  to  the  future. 
In  the  words  of  that  great  citizen  of  the  world, 
President  Wilson :  "What  is  at  stake  now  is  the 
peace  of  the  world.  What  we  are  striving  for  is 
a  new  international  order  based  upon  the  broad 
and  universal  principles  of  right  and  justice,  .  .  . 
national  aspirations  must  be  respected;  peoples 
may  now  be  dominated  and  governed  only  by 
their  own  consent."  The  situation  which  allows 
four  million  Rumanians,  living  in  compact  masses 
and  in  direct  contact  with  their  co-nationals  within 
the  Kingdom,  to  be  dominated  by  a  small  foreign 
minority,  to  be  left  without  national  representa- 
tion, without  national  schools,  and  without  secure 
rights,  is  as  unjust  as  it  must  be  ominous  for  any 
prospect  of  lasting  peace.  That  is  recognised  even 
by  the  extreme  wing  of  the  Rumanian  socialists. 
In  an  open  letter  addressed  to  the  Dutch-Scandi- 
navian Committee  on  January  26th,  1918,  Com- 
rade Dr.  Rakowsky  urges  that  uthe  Transylva- 


n8  Rumania  and  the  War 

nian  question  is  essentially  the  national  question 
of  Hungary  and  the  cause  of  many  past  and  pos- 
sibly also  of  future  conflicts ;  and  it  is  a  question  of 
such  consequence  that  it  cannot  possibly  be  disre- 
garded in  any  proposals  for  a  lasting  peace." 

The  fundamental  condition  of  a  lasting  peace 
has  been  accepted  to  be  the  principle  of  self-deter- 
mination. The  untiring  demands  of  the  Ru- 
manians of  Hungary  for  national  independence 
are  too  well  known  to  need  repetition  here.  It 
should  only  be  pointed  out  that  the  Transylvanian 
prisoners  of  war  in  Russia  petitioned  the  Russian 
provisional  Government  for  permission  to  fight 
for  the  liberation  of  Transylvania,  and  that  sev- 
eral thousands  of  them  have  voluntarily  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  much-tried  Rumanian  army. 

The  fundamental  aim  of  the  labor  world  is  that 
the  settlement  shall  be  such  as  will  provide  a  clean 
ground  for  the  ripening  of  democracy.  Now  it 
is  obvious  that  the  four  million  Rumanians  of 
Transylvania  whose  democratic  sentiments  have 
been  hardened  by  the  most  tyrannic  oppression 
must  necessarily  constitute  an  important  demo- 
cratic factor;  and  that  incorporated  with  Ru- 
mania they  would  infuse  a  new  democratic  spirit 
into  the  not  irreproachable  political  life  of  that 
kingdom.  A  united  Rumanian  state,  almost  half 
of  whose  population  would  be  composed  of  people 


Memorandum  of  the  Rumanian  War  Aims     119 

who  have  stood  the  test  and  trials  of  oligarchical 
despotism,  would  be  a  factor  of  stability  and  demo- 
cratic  progress  in  Eastern  Europe. 

A  Rumanian  state  formed  on  such  a  basis  would 
include  various  national  minorities.  It  is  the 
hope  of  all  of  us  that  the  civilized  world  will  no 
longer  know  racial  and  national  feuds;  but  there 
are  in  addition  cogent  reasons  why  the  fate  of 
those  national  minorities  need  not  be  viewed  with 
concern.  The  Rumanians  will  be  bound  to  give 
them  full  possibilities  of  development  in  order  to 
secure  similar  advantages  for  the  several  Ru- 
manian minorities  which  will  remain  outside  the 
boundaries  of  the  new  state;  in  Ukrainia  (in  the 
government  of  Korson  and  in  Podolia)  ;  in  Ser- 
bia (in  the  Timok  Valley)  ;  in  Bulgaria  (on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Danube)  ;  and  in  Macedonia, 
with  its  half-million  Rumanians.  But  their  in- 
dependence is  most  of  all  assured  by  the  fact 
that  the  much-oppressed  Rumanian  nation  has 
never  shown  leanings  towards  oppression.  This 
statement  finds  corroboration  in  ancient  and  in 
recent  history.  When  in  1848  the  Transylvanians 
rose  to  shake  off  Magyar  despotism,  40,000  of 
them  assembled  outside  the  town  of  Blaj,  and 
each  and  all  of  them  took  the  oath  "to  defend  our 
Rumanian  language  and  rights,  defend  liberty, 
equality  and  fraternity;  in  accordance  with  those 


I2O  Rumania  and  the  War 

principles  to  respect  the  nationalities  of  all  the  in- 
habitants of  Transylvania,  claiming  from  them 
equal  respect  for  my  own  nationality.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  oppress  anybody,  but  neither  will  I 
suffer  the  oppression  of  anybody.  I  will  co-oper- 
ate in  the  furtherance  of  the  good  of  mankind, 
of  the  Rumanian  nation,  and  of  the  Fatherland. 
So  help  me  God  and  bring  deliverance  to  my  soul." 
That  worthy  tradition  of  our  revolutionary 
forefathers  has  found  expression  and  application 
in  the  acts  of  the  new  Moldavian  Republic,  which 
has  given  itself  an  unqualified  democratic  consti- 
tution. Among  the  150  members  of  the  Provi- 
sional Assembly  (Council  of  the  Land)  there  are 
fifteen  Ukrainians,  thirteen  Jews,  five  Bulgarians, 
etc. ;  and  the  Proclamation  which  sets  out  in  de- 
tail the  immediate  function  which  the  Assembly 
is  called  upon  to  fill  provides  by  Article  7  that 
it  shall:  "insure  full  equality  of  rights  to  all  the 
peoples  living  in  the  territory  of  the  Moldavian 
Republic,  giving  them  cultural,  national,  and  per- 
sonal autonomy." 

In  conclusion,  as  a  question  of  justice,  for  Labor 
cannot  sanction  oppression;  of  principle,  because 
self-determination  is  the  essence  of  our  ideals;  as 
well  as  of  policy,  because  we  cannot  better  further 
democracy  than  by  reducing  strife-bringing  na- 


Memorandum  of  the  Rumanian  War  Aims     121 

tional  problems:  for  all  these  reasons,  and  in- 
spired by  no  other  sentiment  than  love  and  chanty 
for  the  world  of  man,  we  consider  that  the  future 
Rumanian  state  should  comprise  the  following 
provinces: 

1.  The  Rumanian  Kingdom  within  the  bounda- 
ries which  obtained  before  the  Peace  of  Bucharest 
of  1913.     The  territory  then  acquired  by  Ruma- 
nia in  southern  Dobrudja  must  be  restored  to  Bul- 
garia.    But  the  Bulgarian  claim  to  the  whole  of 
the  Dobrudja  can  in  no  way  be  justified,  since  (a) 
out  of  a  total  population  of  roughly  400,000  the 
Dobrudja  contains  about  300,000  Rumanians  as 
against  40,000  Bulgarians,  (b)  that  region  which 
was  practically  a  desert  when  handed  over  to  Ru- 
mania by  the  Great  Powers  in  1878,  has  been  de- 
veloped very  satisfactorily  and  exclusively  by  Ru- 
manian money  and  energy,    (c)    it  is  Rumania's 
only  outlet  to  the  open  sea.     The  admission  of 
the  Bulgarian  claim  would  be  a  flagrant  injustice, 
it  would  cripple   Rumania   economically,   and  it 
would  make  reconciliation  between  the  two  peo- 
ples impossible. 

2.  Transylvania,  with  a  substantial  minority  of 
Szekelers  and  smaller  minorities  of  Saxons  and 
Magyars. 

3.  The  Banat,  two-thirds  of  the  population  of 
which  is  Rumanian,  the  rest  being  composed  main- 


122  Rumania  and  the  War 

ly  of  Serbs,  with  a  certain  admixture  of  Germans, 
in  the  district  of  Torontal.  The  Serbian  and  Ru- 
manian peoples  who  have  never  faced,  one  an- 
other as  foes  will  certainly  be  able  to  settle  this 
question  by  friendly  agreement. 

4.  Bucowina,  that  is,  the  southern  two-thirds 
of  the  province;  the  northern  third,  which  is  in- 
habited by  Ruthenians,  should  be  attached  to  the 
Ukrainian  Republic. 

5.  Crishaha.    The  "comitats"  in  which  the  Ru- 
manians preponderate  and  which  border  on  Tran- 
sylvania have  a  continuous  Rumanian  population; 
that  point  is  of  importance  since  the  boundaries 
of  those  "comitats"  have  been  so  traced  by  the 
Hungarians  for  electoral  purposes  as  to  cut  across 
the  compact  masses  of  the  Rumanian  population. 

6.  Maramuresh,   in  its   southern  portion,   the 
northern  part  having  a  Slovak  population. 

7.  Bessarabia,  if  the  new  Moldavian  Republic 
expresses  a  desire  to  be  incorporated  in  the  new 
Rumanian  state,  in  which  case  its  constitution  and 
legislation  should  be  respected. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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